Severe scarlet fever in a child with down syndrome – A case report

Abstract

Introduction Scarlet fever is an acute infectious disease that is characterized by development of characteristic pin-point exanthema in a patient with signs of streptococcal pharyngitis and tonsillitis. Nowadays, due to effective antibacterial treatment, severe complicated cases of scarlet fever are occasionally rare. Because of immunity particularities, patients with Down syndrome are predisposed to bacterial respiratory diseases (and scarlet fever among them), that usually have prolonged complicated course. Case report A clinical case of scarlet fever in a patient with Down syndrome was analyzed. The disease had a severe course with a specific skin syndrome and was complicated by pneumonia. Hospitalization and adequate treatment of the patient led to his complete recovery despite late initiation of antibacterial medicine. Discussion A long severe complicated course of the disease in the presented case was caused by combination of the late initiation of antibacterial treatment and the patient’s personal particularities of reactivity. Conclusions Patients with Down syndrome should be adequately monitored by family doctors in case of pharyngitis with early testing for group A hemolytic Streptococcus infection and administration of the correct antibacterial treatment, if the test is positive.