A 22-year-old woman who thought she had caught a cold after visiting a busy pub in Brixton, London, was shocked to discover she had contracted scarlet fever, a disease often associated with the Victorian era.
Indigo Duffy, a self-employed vintage clothes seller from Kingston, initially dismissed her sore throat as a common cold following a gig at a packed pub and a music festival the previous week. However, days later she noticed burning red welts on her legs and woke up with a rash covering her entire body.
After Googling her symptoms, she suspected scarlet fever and went to Kingston Hospital’s A&E department, where doctors confirmed the diagnosis and prescribed a week-long course of antibiotics. Scarlet fever was a leading cause of death in children in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but declined significantly by the mid-20th century.
Duffy described the experience as ‘panicking’ and said she felt like a ‘sick Victorian child’. She spent a week recovering on the sofa, followed by two weeks of dry, peeling skin on her legs. She shared her ordeal to raise awareness after the UK Health Security Agency reported 12,176 cases of scarlet fever between January and March 2024, higher than the five-year average.
The NHS advises that scarlet fever mostly affects young children and is contagious, with symptoms including flu-like signs and a sandpaper-like rash. Duffy urged others to ‘expect the unexpected’ and seek medical help if symptoms appear.
