Staphylococcal Scarlet Fever

Abstract

THE unusual clinical entity of staphylococcal scarlet fever was described by Aranow and Wood¹ in 1942, in a patient with staphylococcal osteomyelitis and bacteremia, in whom the typical rash and desquamation of scarlet fever developed; a soluble filtrate of the offending organism produced an erythrogenic toxin, which, on injection in Dick-positive volunteers, caused a positive reaction. A negative reaction was found in patients convalescing from staphylococcal scarlatina. The positive reaction could be prevented by the prior admixture of the toxin with scarlatina (streptococcal) antitoxin. Stevens² had described 3 patients with scarlet fever in conjunction with staphylococcal infection in 1927, all . . .