[CHAPTER XXVII]
HOW SCARLET FEVER IS CARRIED
There are certain diseases that we know to be communicable (that is, "catching"), but as yet we do not know the germ that causes them, and therefore we cannot tell just how they are carried about. We do know that they are transferred from one person to another; but not being able to locate the cause, as we can in the diseases of which we do know the germ, we cannot explain how it is done.
How scarlet fever is like diphtheria
Among the diseases of this class we find scarlet fever. In one respect scarlet fever acts much the same as diphtheria. A person may have it and not be very sick, sometimes hardly sick at all. At night a child may have a high fever, with a slightly sore throat, and the next morning he may feel perfectly well. The mother supposes that the fever was due to an "upset stomach," thinks no more about it, and sends the child to school. The next time the child takes a bath, he perhaps notices that the skin peels off over some parts of the body. This means that the high fever was due to scarlet fever, but the breaking-out (rash) was so fine that it was not noticed. It also means that all the children in the school have been exposed to the disease. These very mild cases are the most dangerous because so often they are not recognized.
Why mild cases are dangerous:
(1) For the severe cases they cause
There are two things to be remembered in connection with these mild forms of scarlet fever, as well as of every other communicable disease. The first is that the same cause which produces a mild form of the disease in one child may produce its most severe form in another child. You can contract a mild form of the disease from exposure to a severe case; and you can contract a severe form from exposure to a mild case. The character of the case to which you are exposed will give no indication of the form the disease will assume in your body.
(2) For the bad after effects
The next thing to be remembered about the mild form of scarlet fever is that, though the child may not be made very sick at the time, there may later be very bad results. A child who has had scarlet fever in such a mild form that he hardly knew he was sick, may, for a while, appear to be quite well; then suddenly he has an earache, and an abscess forms. This abscess is due to the scarlet fever germs which have gone from the throat to the ear, and as a result the child may lose his hearing entirely.
The child may not, perhaps, have an abscess, but after a time he may begin to lose flesh, and to grow pale. He does not care for his meals, does not care to play, says he is tired, and wants to lie still all the time. Finally his mother thinks it might be a good idea to have a doctor see him. The doctor examines his body carefully, and then asks for a sample of his urine. When he has examined this, he looks very serious and asks the mother when the child was sick last, and what the disease was. Perhaps she has forgotten all about the slight attack of fever, and the doctor must question her very carefully before she recalls it. At length it occurs to her, and then the doctor asks, "After this attack of fever, did you notice that the skin came off his hands and body?" She replies that she did, and then the doctor tells her that the child really had scarlet fever, and, owing to lack of care, he now has kidney disease. This is a very serious trouble, from which he may never recover, or, in case of recovery, he may always be weak and sickly. Even a mild attack of scarlet fever is not to be neglected; it is a severe and dangerous disease in its very mildest form. It not only kills a great many boys and girls, but it makes delicate in health for all their lives many of those who apparently recover.