The probable cause why people get so nervous when they hear about scarlet fever is that they often confuse it with rheumatic fever, which is in fact a more severe and serious complication of strep throat when left untreated. Another reason would be the ravages that scarlet used to have when it wasn't properly treated in the 19th and early 20th century. Fortunate for us and thanks to modern technology this is not the case anymore. The fact is that we now a great arsenal of antibiotics with which to properly fight the disease and actual studies have shown that the strain of bacteria that causes scarlet fever seems to be getting weaker.

Scarlet fever symptoms are much alike to the one in normal strep throat. By this we mean sore throat, red tonsils with pus on them, swollen glands and of course fever. In addition to this, most of the children will sometimes develop after a period of about 24 hours, sunburned like sandpapery rash all over their body; usually the rash on the skin begins on the neck and then spreads over the trunk, arms and even the legs of the patient.

In some children the areas of skin that are in the flexor creases tend to be more darker in color than the rest of the skin rashes on the rest of the body. These darker regions are the creases of the elbows, groin, and neck. The area right around the mouth of the child seems to be left unaffected, but sometimes they will experience flushed cheeks. The rash seems to blanch under pressure, so if you push the skin in the rash area, the redness of the skin will disappear for a few seconds. Some children may develop a white strawberry tongue, or a red tongue that develops a white coating on it. After the disease has been properly treated, and as it goes away it is not uncommon for the skin on the child's trunk and then hands and feet to peel of.

Strange cases of scarlet fever have been known where strep throat is actually not present. Other strep infections, including skin and wound infections, have been known to trigger scarlet fever, but this is as long as they are caused by the same group A strep bacteria that also causes strep throat. If a child experiences symptoms similar to those in scarlet fever but does not have any strep throat related symptoms, than sings of another source for a strep infection should be looked for.