BackgroundScarlet fever, one of the infectious diseases, has become an epidemic in some periods and has become an epidemic in history, causing thousands of people to die. In the Ottoman Empire and the early Republic of Turkey, there was not enough literature about the prevalence of the scarlet fever epidemic, the epidemic level, the mortality status and the fight against the disease.MethodsThe effects of scarlet fever on society during the early periods of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey, as well as the measures taken to control the disease, have been researched in Ottoman archival documents.ResultsThe number of scarlet fever patients is 1225 in Anatolian settlements; 429 (35.0%) of them were children, 76 (17.7%) of the children died, and 1796 (65.0%) of them were people, 49 (6.2%) of them died. The number of scarlet fever patients is 147 in Balkan settlements; 36 (24.5%) of them were children, 6 (16.7%) of the children died, and 111 (75.5%) of them were people, 48 (43.2%) of them died. The mortality rate from scarlet fever in the Ottoman Empire was 13.0%. In Ottoman documents, the demographic structure of the society is not detailed. It is only mentioned as adults and children. In a document, it is stated that an older woman died of scarlet fever. Most documents determined that scarlet fever was seen among poor people living in villages and cities. Scarlet fever spread, and more deaths occurred in the villages, mainly due to reasons such as unhygienic conditions, separation of people, and lack of medical personnel. In the early Republic of Turkey, 8865 patients were indicated, and 1681 of them (19.0%) died.ConclusionThe main factors causing the emergence of epidemic diseases were wars and the disruption of society’s lifestyle, socioeconomic conditions and wars.Public Interest SummaryEpidemic diseases have had and continue to have significant effects on public health from the past to the present. In our research, it was determined that scarlet fever causes a significant number of deaths in epidemics. It has been determined that some precautions were taken against the epidemic disease, which are still valid today, but they were less adequate than today’s measures. It has been determined that measures can be developed against current and future epidemics in line with the measures taken against the same disease in the past.