Dukes' disease

Dukes' disease, named after Clement Dukes (1845–1925), also known as fourth disease, Filatov-Dukes' disease (after Nil Filatov), Staphylococcal Scalded Skin Syndrome (SSSS), or Ritter's disease is an exanthem (rash-causing) illness primarily affecting children and historically described as a distinct bacterial infection, though its existence as a separate disease entity is now debated.

It is distinguished from measles or forms of rubella, though it was considered as a form of bacterial rash. Although Dukes identified it as a separate entity, it is thought not to be different from scarlet fever caused by exotoxin-producing Streptococcus pyogenes after Keith Powell proposed equating it with the condition currently known as staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome in 1979.

It was never associated with a specific pathogen, and the terminology is no longer in use. However, a mysterious rash of unknown cause in school children often gives rise to the question of whether it could be Dukes' disease.