You're welcome; glad to be of help.
Finish the penicillin as directed by your doctor. In addition to the antibiotic, your own immune system has kicked in by now to resolve your infection. You are now highly resistant and you're not likely to be reinfected with strep any time soon, either from another person or the environment.
Hi
Thank you for your response and the info provided it has explained a lot to me and that STDs is not an issue here.
I was concerned about completing the penicillin course for the second time and being reinfected from my partner thinking that he maybe a carrier but your explanation is saying it could be anything in the environment or that I may have had it some time.
Ill make sure they check out his hands at GUM when we go for a full STD checkup as it looks identical to my peeling hands but he's showing no other symptoms.
Thanks for your time.
Alan
Welcome to the STD forum.
Scarlet fever is just strep throat plus a skin rash, caused by group A Streptococcus bacteria. Inflamed kidneys are a rare but potentially serious side effect of any group A strep infection, so your doctor's caution in checking that out doesn't mean anything special. Your description of your symptoms is textbook-classical and your doctor's diagnosis undoubtedly is correct.
Many people carry strep in the nose and on the skin, and it also can be left behind in the environment, on everything from doorknobs to phones to table surfaces. But most cases probably are acquired by personal contact like handshaking, social kissing, etc, and usually the exact source of infection is never known. However, certainly any bacteria on the skin or in the mouth or nose can easily be transmitted between sex partners. It is also possible you have been carrying group A strep for a long time. Strep throat can be triggered in carriers by garden variety colds or other respiratory infections.
That he apparently has a similar rash is of interest and could indicate he has had a mild infection himself. It would be a good idea for him to see his primary care provider for testing for strep and possibly for antibiotic treatment -- or they might be able to take care of this at a GUM clinic (see below).
Presence or absence of STD would not affect the time for the rash to clear up. The rash is due to a toxin released by strep, not the direct result of infection -- and it clears up on its own schedule, usually 2-3 weeks.
So this clearly is not an STD in any sense. On the other hand, STD testing is recommended from time to time among most sexually active persons, especially MSM; and mutual testing makes sense when a new relationship starts. On that basis, you might go ahead with your plan for screening at a GUM clinic -- with understanding that the penicillin treatment will have cleared up many possible STDs, like gonorrhea or syphilis. But this advice is entirely unrelated to your strep infection.
In case you are interested, here is a great website with excellent photos of scarlet fever rash: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/HARDIN/md/dermnet/scarlet4.html
Best wishes-- HHH, MD