Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 10, 2026

Granulocyte-dependent Autoantibody-induced Skin Blistering
Published on: October 12, 2012
[Scarlet fever outbreak in a public school in Granada in 2012]
M Fernández-Prada1, S Martínez-Diz2, A Colina López3
1Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Medicina Preventiva, Vigilancia y Promoción de la Salud, Hospital Universitario San Cecilio, Granada, España.
Introduction:
Scarlet fever is a streptococcal disease characterized by a skin rash in children. It can be endemic, epidemic or sporadic. In April 2012, the headmaster of a primary school in Granada reported an outbreak of scarlet fever in the school.
Objective:
To describe an outbreak of scarlet fever, analyse its epidemiological and clinical characteristics, and present the preventive measures taken to control it.
Patients And Methods:
A case-control study was conducted using an ad hoc questionnaire, developed for this purpose. The R program, Epidat 3.1 and Microsoft Excel were used for the statistics analysis.
Results:
There were 13 cases and 30 controls. The attack rate was 3.9%. There was a statistically significant difference for the variable "relative affected".
Conclusion:
There has been a confirmed outbreak of person-to-person transmitted scarlet fever, and the main risk factor was having a relative with tonsillitis.
Related Concept Videos
Investigation of Disease Outbreaks
Diphtheria
Infectious Diseases and Their Occurrence
Steps in Outbreak Investigation
Patterns of Fever
Principles of Disease Surveillance

