Scarlet fever - etymology?

[picunurse]

@DSeid

Oh. The two previous posts illustrate a common confusion, popularized by many movies and books. Scarlet fever is just having the rash with strep throat. Rheumatic fever are group of serious complications that can occur after untreated strep throat, whether the scarlet fever rash was present or not.

Another fun scarlet fever fact: sometimes after the rash goes away the skin can peel on the hands and feet like this. Loads of fun if you don’t know to expect it!

That looks more like early Stevens-Johnsons.

[DSeid]

Believe it or not it really is exactly what bread and butter desquamation after scarlet fever commonly looks like. Thing is it is superficial skin, sort of like a healing sunburn. I know in the PICU Stevens Johnson is more common, but in the office we see this desquamation all the time.