Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: strawberry tongue

  • “Scarlet letters” — The depiction of scarlet fever in literature

    Emily BoyleDublin, Ireland Scarlet fever, named for the erythematous skin rash that may accompany streptococcal infections (Fig 1), is often considered a disease of Victorian times. Associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality (up to 25%) when epidemics were common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe and the US,1,2 it is seen less…