Must admit I'm a little concerned with this and not without some cause.
My three year old son came down with scarlet fever in April - had it relatively mildly, with a low grade fever and rash, but more prominent strawberry tongue. A course of antibiotics cleared everything up very quickly... until his symptoms returned a week later. During that period I managed to catch strep throat from him. After his symptoms (still mild) reappeared he had a positive Strep A throat swab, which is quite weird for someone who's just done a ten day course of penicillin. This was followed by another ten day dose of antibiotics... and another positive throat swab. We were told to just forget about it unless he had any further symptoms. There was a bit of an outbreak at his nursery around the time, but the nursery were very lax in following up on things it seems.
All fine until October when he came down with it again - twice in 6 months! This time his symptoms were a bit stronger, but still fairly mild on the wider scale of things. A larger outbreak at his nursery again it seems. A course of antibiotics followed again... and then his four month old sister came down with it the following week! Again, hers was very mild. And again, I managed to catch strep throat.
As it's bacterial you don't really build up (much) immunity to it - I get strep throat once or twice a year in general. I'm slightly concerned that he/both of them may be slightly susceptible to it, therefore increasing any chances of getting it again. Perhaps he's a natural Strep A carrier. Maybe I am too.
I'd hoped that the recent outbreak in October and November might have spared the nursery this time around... but of course we have had a message from the nursery this morning mentioning they've had a case of scarlet fever. Given the proximity to Christmas, I might just take him out of nursery next week and week after (he only does Mon-Weds) and let things cool down until the new year.
