1 The Department of Pediatrics, Gallinger Municipal Hospital, Washington, D.C.
The syndrome of acute serous meningitis complicating scarlet fever has been described. The condition has been found in approximately 1% of patients with scarlet fever. The onset usually is in the second half of the first week of illness. There is a recrudescence of fever with headache, toxemia, meningeal signs which may be minimal or absent, and a lymphocytic pleocytosis in the spinal fluid. The blood shows a polymorphonuclear leucocytosis in most instances. The condition ameliorates rapidly and recovery seems to be complete. The clinical manifestations of this syndrome are quite different from those of encephalitis complicating scarlet fever. The points in differential diagnosis have been outlined.
Submitted on July 26, 1948