Every day in the column "Les evils du everyday", Doctor Jimmy Mohamed takes stock of a disease.

This Tuesday, he is interested in roseola, this benign viral infection which affects very young children, generally before the age of two, and which is linked to a virus of the human herpes group.

High fever, formation of plaques and pink spots on the body, in most cases in babies and very young children ... In the "everyday ailments" section of "Sans Rendez-vous", Dr. Jimmy Mohamed took an interest in roseola on Tuesday, this viral infection that can be difficult to detect at first and which can only be caught once.

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Is roseola contagious?

"It is a viral infection, therefore due to a virus, which is called human herpes type 6. And moreover, roseola is called the sixth disease. It is an infection that will mainly affect children. In 90% of cases, it is caught before the age of 2 and there is usually a peak between 7 and 13 months. 

We almost all had it at some time, we met it, even if we are not always going to have this rash.

So often parents tend to forget about it.

Chickenpox, it marks, but roseola, a little less and it evolves by small epidemics.

With roseola there is a fairly long incubation period, from 5 to 15 days.

It means that you can have roseola that will spread quietly in a nursery, in a community, and a little less in the family.

How to recognize this infection?

The first thing to look out for is a fever before you have rosebuds.

This can be quite high, between 39 and 40 degrees for easily three days.

It is a fever that will confuse parents because it will be isolated: babies will not have a runny nose, will not cough.

They will be a little cranky, a little tired, but will keep in good general condition.

Sometimes there is a little watery stool which can lead to confusion with gastroenteritis.

But on the third day, the temperature will drop and on the fourth day, you have a rash with small pink spots on the trunk, chest, abdomen, a little on the shoulders and legs.

These little spots will never scratch.

And it is this rash that leads parents to consult.

How to treat roseola?

Doctors like pimples because often it is a sign of a viral infection and there is not much you can do.

On the other hand, the parents will consult very quickly after 24 hours of fever.

At that point, we reassure them.

We tell them to be patient, to give him some paracetamol.

But the rashes resolve spontaneously within 24 to 36 hours.

Quite quickly, the pimples disappear without leaving any scars.

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We do not give cream, anti allergic, or talc.

Moreover, talc is contraindicated in children.

It goes away spontaneously, there is no after-effect and the child can very quickly go back to doing his stupid things or catching other viral infections.

Also note that when a baby has a fever, we discover it, we make it drink and we do not overheat the room.

These are the only three measures validated to fight against temperature. "