Scarlet fever was the scourge of the 19th century, infecting thousands and bringing along with it fever, a strawberry-tinted tongue, and infected wounds. After antibiotics were invented, the disease was nearly eradicated.
But now scarlet fever is back and sweeping Hong Kong, with two deaths and at least 400 cases of scarlet fever reported in the special administrative region this year. Even more worrying, this new strain of scarlet fever appears to be resistant to antibiotics.
Scarlet fever isn’t the first disease of old to reappear; measles, polio, whooping cough and mumps have all made alarming comebacks in recent years.
Before 1963, almost everyone got measles. A shocking three to four million cases and an average of 450 deaths were reported in the U.S. every year until the measles vac.



