Introduction
Scarlet fever is one of the typical diseases of childhood. Its duration always depends on various individual factors. It also plays a decisive role whether and with which antibiotics the disease is treated.
Duration of the disease
The entire disease lasts about 7 to 10 days and is divided into three stages, whereby the person in the first stage does not even notice the disease. Of course, as in all cases, the duration of the disease is strongly dependent on individual factors that can cause scarlet fever to be overcome more quickly or more slowly.
- This phase takes about 4,
- The incubation stage approx. 2 and
- The erythema stage again approx. 5 days.
Incubation period duration
The incubation period is the first phase of any disease. During this period, the person himself does not yet notice anything of the disease and the body’s immune system is not yet busy fighting the pathogens. Rather, the pathogens can multiply almost undisturbed in this phase until they have reached a critical, really disease-causing quantity.
In the literature, the incubation period for scarlet fever is given as 2 to 4 or 3 to 5 days. The incubation time depends on the initial load of the pathogens, i.e. how many pathogens attack the body at the beginning and then of course on the generation time of the bacteria, i.e. the time they need to multiply.
How long do the symptoms of scarlet fever last?
The symptoms of scarlet fever occur at slightly delayed intervals. The actual onset of the disease is characterized by an acute fever attack, chills and an increased heart rate. Shortly afterwards, sore throat with an inflamed throat and a swelling of the lymph nodes of the neck also occur.
Usually the following day, the typical symptoms such as a raspberry-red tongue appear. The also typical reddening of the face, the so-called exanthema stage, usually occurs 48 hours after the onset of fever. This redness then spreads over the entire body and begins to fade after 3 to 4 days. Periods of up to one week until the redness subsides are still normal. The fever usually disappears after about a week as well.
