Roseola

Georgia had Roseola two weeks ago. First she had an onset of high fever going on and off for 3 days and when the fever breaks, rashes started appearing in her torso. Then it spread from her face down to her legs. It cleared soon after about 4 days. She was feeling so miserable as there were so much discomfort. Well I lost some sleep but glad that she's all right.

When we brought her to see the PD and he suspected that it might be 'false measles' and boy was he right. Well the scientific term for 'false measles' is Roseola. Told my mum about Georgia's condition and she started saying that it's very 'pantang' and Georgia must avoid all contacts with pregnant lady, blah, blah, blah. So I went to find out more about this so called 'false measles' and found out it was actually caused by a set of virus from the Human Herpes Virus. Doctors suspected that this might be spread through oral secretions from another person.

The day before Georgia had her fever, I got a cold while we were at our neighbours. Then the neighbour's son offered Georgia a piece of cookie. The next day she got a high fever. I suspect that the virus might have been from the cookie. Roseola is contagious so therefore during that period there must be no contact with other children as children between 6months and under 3 years are more susceptible to this. I also found out that once your child has been exposed to it, it's very difficult to prevent.

After that bout, I was a bit more careful about others offering food to her. I'm not sure whether did they wash their hands after they've used the toilet. I guess one can never be too careful with these things. Prevention is still better than nothing!