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Parents' warning after son's rash sparks meningococcal fears

An Adelaide couple have warned about an unusual rash that can affect young children after fearing their son had meningococcal disease.

Their five-year-old son, Dale Hayward, had played a game of football on a Sunday morning, and by that afternoon what looked like little mosquito bites had appeared all over his legs.

“I noticed that the spots got bigger, they got brighter,” the boy’s mother Darlene Harper said.

Then the spots spread down Dale’s lower body. By the time they got to hospital, his little feet were so swollen he couldn’t stand.

It took just hours for this rash to develop on five-year-old Dale Hayward’s legs. Source: 7News
It took just hours for this rash to develop on five-year-old Dale Hayward’s legs. Source: 7News

“It was a very scary time, it was happening so quick,” Ms Harper said.

The rash had Dale’s mother thinking the worst – that her young boy had meningococcal.

It turned out to be a childhood illness called HSP, or Henoch-Schonlein purpura or IGA vasculitis.

It typically strikes in spring and is not uncommon.

Doctors don’t know the exact cause of HSP, but it usually follows a respiratory illness, like a cold or a flu, and is most common in boys under the age of six.

By the time he arrived at hospital Dale couldn’t stand because his feet were so swollen. Source: 7News
By the time he arrived at hospital Dale couldn’t stand because his feet were so swollen. Source: 7News

“We’d always recommend that when a child comes up with a rash that doesn’t blanch, that they be seen by a doctor or a nurse,” paediatrician Aggie Judkins said.

Sometimes HSP symptoms can last for months, and it can even cause permanent kidney damage.

Doctors say once they rule out meningococcal, pain relief is usually the only treatment.