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In the early 20th century, scarlet fever was a leading cause of death in children, but even before World War II and the introduction of antibiotics, its severity was already declining. This decline is suggested to be due to better living conditions, the introduction of better control measures, or a decline in the virulence of the bacteria.
The ASOT helps direct antimicrobial treatment and is used to assist in the diagnosis of scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, and post infectious glomerulonephritis. [citation needed] A positive test usually is > 200 units/mL, [1] but normal ranges vary from laboratory to laboratory and by age. [2] The false negatives rate is 20 to 30%. [1]
Treatment with antibiotics shortens the duration of the acute illness by about 16 hours. [13] The primary reason for treatment with antibiotics is to reduce the risk of complications such as rheumatic fever and retropharyngeal abscesses. [13] Antibiotics prevent acute rheumatic fever if given within 9 days of the onset of symptoms. [16]
Side effects may only last for a short time and then go away. Side effects can be relieved in some cases with non pharmacological treatment. [4] Some side effects require treatment to correct potentially serious and sometimes fatal reactions to penicillin. Penicillin has not been found to cause birth defects. [5]
Enterocolitis is common in children. Sepsis occasionally occurs; it primarily occurs in patients with preexisting comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, liver cirrhosis, or hemochromatosis . Postinfective complications include reactive arthritis, erythema nodosum , iritis , and glomerulonephritis .
Penicillin, an antibiotic, is the drug of choice for the treatment of scarlet fever as for any other S. pyogenes infection. For those who are allergic to penicillin, the antibiotics erythromycin or clindamycin can be used. However, occasional resistance to these drugs has been reported. [16]
The treatment of choice is penicillin, and the duration of treatment is around 10 days. [23] Antibiotic therapy (using injected penicillin) has been shown to reduce the risk of acute rheumatic fever. [24] In individuals with a penicillin allergy, erythromycin, other macrolides, and cephalosporins have been shown to be effective treatments. [25]
This compared quite favorably when measured against the 13.09% among children in Vienna hospitals where the scarlet fever serum was not administered. Moser's antitoxin reduced the mortality of scarlet fever by 40%. At no time was the volume of serum available sufficient. As of November 1902 a strong concentrated scarlet fever serum was ...