Rare, painful skin condition sends multiple kids to WakeMed hospital :: WRAL.com

Multiple children have been treated in Wake County emergency
rooms for a rare, but painful skin condition in recent weeks.

Holly Rund shared her five-year-old daughter Lexi was in so
much pain last weekend that it caused Lexi to scream when she was touched.

“At first I thought it was hand-foot-and-mouth, and I
noticed she had a blister,” Holly recalled. “There were two on her legs and one
on her side.”

Lexi’s pain grew worse, and she said her skin became itchy.

“The one on her side, when I looked at it, that was when I
knew something wasn’t right. It was yellow and puffed out and really big,” Holly
said.

Lexi described her symptoms in three simple words: “It
really hurt.”

The mother took her daughter to the WakeMed Raleigh
emergency department on Sunday to get examined.

That’s when the Runds learned Lexi had a rare but painful
condition called staphylococcal scalding skin syndrome (SSSS), also known as
Ritter’s Disease.

Lexi was kept overnight and treated with IV fluids and antibiotics.

Dr. Graham Snyder is an emergency physician who sees patients
at WakeMed Raleigh and is the medical director of the hospital system’s medical
simulation center.

The physician shared he treated a different patient with the
same condition earlier this week. It was the first time he’d seen the condition this year. 

“When I walked in the room and saw a patient recently, my first
thought was ‘Oh this is impetigo,’ which is just a little thing kids get from
scratching mosquito bites,” Snyder said. “The thing that was different was the
child had redness over their entire body, and their skin hurt. Normally rashes
don’t hurt. They may itch, but if a rash hurts you have to ask yourself if
something else is going on.”

Snyder explained the bacteria behind SSSS sometimes grows after
a child gets a cut, or if they have been scratching their skin a lot – like if
they have allergies or eczema.

“Staphylococcus, which is just like the staph infection you’ve
always heard of, emits a toxin into the blood that goes into the skin and
damages the skin, almost like a burn,” Snyder explained.

The rash and sores may sometimes be initially misdiagnosed
with pediatricians as other conditions, like hand-foot-and-mouth disease.

“The combination of pain being everywhere in the body and sometimes
you can have a combination of fever at the same time, should kind of raise your
suspicion,” Snyder warned.

WakeMed has seen six cases so far this year, and all of them have
been pediatric.

Snyder says the number isn’t abnormal and added that multiple
cases have been reported within the past few weeks, which is slightly unusual.

WRAL also reached out to Duke Health and UNC Health
regarding any potential cases this year.

Duke Health officials reported they had not seen an increase
in cases and UNC Health shared they had not seen any cases this year.

Holly said she wants to warn other parents to take their
little one’s symptoms seriously and seek medical attention to keep it from
spreading to others.

“If you see one bump and it looks like that, go in. It’s
better to be safe than sorry. There’s no such thing as overreacting,” Holly said.

SSSS is contagious and can live on surfaces for 24 hours. The
condition can be serious for children, but
mild cases may be resolved on their own, according to the National Children’s
Hospital.