How can scarlet fever be prevented without vaccination? | Vaccination against scarlet fever

How can scarlet fever be prevented without vaccination?

As there is no vaccine against scarlet fever available on the drug market according to current medical guidelines, it is particularly important to take other measures to prevent infection with Group A Streptococcus Scarlet Enterococci. Since the pathogens are transmitted via saliva droplets or infected objects, care should be taken to avoid contact with infectious people. The diseased are already contagious before the first symptoms appear.

After starting antibiotic therapy, physical contact with infected persons should be avoided for 24 hours. After this time, there is usually no longer any risk of infection. When administering antibiotic therapy, one should adhere strictly to the duration of medication prescribed by the doctor in order to prevent possible development of resistance and complications of the disease. To avoid smear infections, adequate hand hygiene should be ensured. If patients with a weakened immune system have contact with infectious patients, in some cases preventive antibiotic therapy can be considered.

Will there soon be a vaccination against scarlet fever?

Over the last decades, major research projects have been initiated to advance the development of an efficient vaccine against scarlet fever. However, to this day, all textbooks still consider the protective effect of a vaccination to be very uncertain. No immunity has been established after having gone through scarlet fever.

An infection with another strain of streptococci, which forms a toxin unknown to the body, is still possible. Since it is not possible to develop a vaccine that contains all the toxins that cause the disease, a new outbreak of scarlet fever is therefore possible at any time. If a potential vaccine is approved on the drug market under the Vaccine Protection Act, the number of infections would probably decrease somewhat. Nevertheless, many children would continue to suffer from scarlet fever and there would be a risk that the belief in the protective function and prevention of a vaccination would diminish in the population and the arguments of the vaccination opponents would be strengthened.Overall, however, the development of a vaccine against the diversity of individual Streptococcus strains will continue to be pursued in the coming years.