Have you noticed any sort of rash on your baby's body, after a bout of fever? Such condition can arise due a number of reasons. Let's find out what causes rash after fever.
Rashes are highly irritating due to the fact that they itch, and also due to their appearance. They make the skin pale, sore, and flaky. Rashes are usually cracked, blistered, bumpy, puffy, painful, or dry in appearance.
They can occur because of allergy, friction, skin disease, infection, and many more similar reasons. But, if the rashes seem to appear all over the body, immediately after a person has recovered from a fever, then it could be a matter of concern.
Such a condition is called three-day-fever, roseola infantum, or exanthematous. Small children between the age group of 6 months to 3 years are more prone to this condition.
Three-day Fever: Symptoms
A common symptom, which is observed on the occurrence of rash after a fever attack is sudden rise in temperature (up to 40 °C). This rise in temperature is known to last for about three to four days at a stretch. Some other serious symptoms are febrile fits, complying with a very high temperature.
Febrile fits may look alarming and dramatic, indicating something serious is going on in the body, and thus the body needs immediate medical attention. These fits are known to occur because of the sudden rise in temperature of the body.
A sudden drop of temperature in the body after three complete days of high fever encourages rashes to appear on the back, chest, and stomach before spreading to areas like the back of the arms, elbows, and legs.
The rashes look like spotty sun burns, but do not itch at all. Some rashes even appear to be pale in color with small heads and reddish spots. In some individuals, these spots stay for about 12 to 15 hours, and then disappear completely.
Since this condition is common among infants and babies, parents should be aware of the symptoms. Parents must also be aware of the basic distinguishing characteristics of this disease from other common childhood diseases such as measles, malaria, etc.
Causes
The occurrence of rashes is a common phenomenon. However, the harshness of fever and rash is not relative to the severity of an illness. Mainly, the cause of rash in children is viral illness.
The virus present in the body gets transferred through the respiratory tract, and becomes the main cause for rash after the fever has subsided. Also, one of the other obvious reasons is, when the child or infant is down with fever, he/she is prone to infection during the entire period of the disease.
Some viruses are the main reasons for the existence of diseases like chickenpox, fifth disease, etc. Roseola is one such virus that attacks children. It is stimulated by human herpes virus 6 and virus 7.
Another very contagious virus named Varicella zoster, known to cause chickenpox in children, is also one of the main reasons why rashes occur in infants and adults, after they have been affected by the chickenpox disease.
A virus called Parvovirus B19 causes the fifth disease. If infants and adults happen to come in contact with this virus, they experience low-grade fever, runny nose and headache, joint pain, and swollen nails.
The best way to control rashes is to give the child proper medications, only after consulting a pediatrician. This will help control the joint pain and swelling, and also curb down the fever in the body. Moreover, proper food and fluid supply should be adequate in those three days of fever and of course thereafter too!
Disclaimer: This story is for informative purposes only, and should not be used as a replacement for expert medical advice.