Childhood Spotty Fevers
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Most children would get all or most of these illnesses in the first 8-10 years of their lives. It was just accepted by all that these diseases were something that most children would get.
They are all viral illnesses and are characterised by a fever and a skin rash. Each disease has a very distinctive rash, so the diagnosis is usually quite obvious.
In the normal course of the illness, whilst the child may be quite unwell, few would come to any harm. The exception being Measles which in a small proportion of cases could be a serious problem. As these diseases are all very infectious and are easily spread by child to child contact, they tend to occur as outbreaks where a lot of children in the same area / school would contract the virus in a short space of time.
To add to the ease of transmission, in all of these diseases they are most infectious for one or two days before the child becomes unwell and develops the skin rash.