How contagious is the three-day fever? | Three-day fever – is that dangerous?

How contagious is the three-day fever?

Three-day fever is a highly contagious, classic childhood disease. In most cases, the disease is passed on to the child by a healthy adult or by siblings who have once experienced the three-day fever themselves. Since the viruses remain in the body for life, such infections can occur years or decades after the original infection.

The transmission takes place mainly when the parents’ or siblings’ defenses are weakened (immunosuppression). The viruses are transmitted to the child by droplet infection or infectious saliva (e.g. sneezing, coughing, speaking, kissing). Due to a period of 5-15 days between infection and the beginning of the three-day fever (incubation period), an infection that has taken place is often not noticed immediately.

However, even the sick child is highly infectious 3 days before the onset of the fever. This danger of infection is present until the rash is over. The problem is that it is not possible to prevent further infection in the time before the onset of the symptoms, as the child is not yet aware of the disease.

However, once a diagnosis of three-day fever has been made, social contacts should be avoided as far as possible in order to avoid further infection of other people. Once you have been through the Three Day Fever, you are protected against further infection for practically your whole life. Since it is a classic childhood disease that almost everyone goes through at a young age, almost every adult is immune.

The three-day fever can easily be recognized by the pediatrician by its typical course of fever and subsequent skin rash (exanthema). A characteristic of the red spots of the exanthema subitum is that they fade when you press on them with your finger and that they do not itch.Due to these peculiarities, it is not difficult to distinguish three-day fever from other childhood diseases with rashes (e.g. measles, rubella, chickenpox, rubella ringworm). Thus, a laboratory examination of the blood is normally not necessary. However, if the rash has not yet appeared and the high fever is still persisting, the doctor can perform various tests to see if the fever is not caused by another infection. In special cases, the three-day fever can be proven by a determination of antibodies in the blood.