Info about Diseases
Infectious Diseases of Childhood
For childhood infections, there is no need to keep the patient in bed unless he feels that he is too unwell to get up.
There is no benefit in keeping a child with an infectious disease in bed if he feels he is well enough to get up. This does not mean that he should go outside, where he is exposed to temperature changes and a risk of catching further secondary infections.
Immunizations
Children can be protected from many diseases. The present recommended schedule of immunizations is listed below. In addition, there is now a vaccination against measles which is available on demand from your own doctor or from the school doctor.
Measles
The characteristics are sore eyes, a coarse red rash covering the face and body, high fever and cough. The interval between the onset and appearance of rash is three or four days. The incubation period is 10 to 15 days.
The child is isolated for about a week after the rash has disappeared. Measles is a notifiable disease there is now an injection against it.
German measles
This is usually a red rash that lasts between 24 and 48 hours, and is accompanied by swollen glands behind the ears. Children should be isolated for seven days from the appearance of the rash.
Contacts should take great care to keep away from pregnant mothers, particularly woman who are in the first three months of pregnancy. Damage may be done to the baby she is carrying if she catches German measles.
Any expectant mother under three months pregnant who has been in contact with German measles should immediately, through her doctor, obtain an injection of GammaglobuIin, which will prevent her becoming infected.
Whooping-cough
The symptoms are a cough with the characteristic whoop, sometimes followed by sickness. Since immunization, it may be less easy to diagnose, because immunization may not prevent a child from getting the disease, merely cut down the severity of it.
Patients should be isolated for 28 days from the beginning of the cough. Children who live in the same house should be kept away from children who have not had whooping cough until three weeks after the house is free from infection.
Mumps
Symptoms are swelling of the angle of the jaws, and difficulty in opening the mouth or chewing. The incubation period is 12 to 28 days. The child should be isolated until seven days after the swelling has disappeared.
Chicken Pox
The characteristics are crops of blistery spots on face and body. The incubation period is 11 to 21 days, with about two-day interval between the onset and appearance of the rash. Isolation should be until the scabs have fallen off.
Scarlet Fever
The characteristics are affine rash, sore throat and some fever. Incubation period is from two to five days, and the interval between the onset and appearance of rash is one or two days. Patients should be isolated until seven days after the rash has disappeared. Scarlet fever is notifiable.