Parents are being warned to be on the lookout for symptoms of scarlet fever amid a number of cases in Wigan.
The 'highly contagious', seasonal bacterial illness usually presents with a sore throat, fever, headaches, and a rosy rash that generally starts on a patient’s chest and mainly affects children. Cases usually peak between December and May. There have been 'a number of confirmed cases' in schools and nurseries across the borough, which has prompted the alert.
Professor Kate Ardern, the council's director of public health and the borough’s chief medical officer, said: "We have had a number of confirmed cases of scarlet fever in nurseries and schools across the borough.
