Childhood Exanthems
A febrile child with a widespread rash needs pattern recognition, a rapid safety screen, infection-control action and targeted public-health management rather than rash-description alone.
Definition
Childhood exanthems are systemic infections or toxin-mediated illnesses that produce a generalised rash, most often in children.
First principles
Rash pattern is a time-and-morphology problem
The most useful diagnostic information is the relationship between fever, prodrome and rash: what came first, where the rash began, how it spreads, whether it blanches, whether lesions are vesicular or sandpaper-like, and whether mucosal or lymph-node findings are present.
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