11 Facts About Rheumatic fever

Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain.

Rheumatic fever is a systemic disease affecting the connective tissue around arterioles, and can occur after an untreated strep throat infection, specifically due to group A streptococcus, Streptococcus pyogenes.

About half of patients with rheumatic fever develop inflammation involving valvular endothelium.

The majority of morbidity and mortality associated with rheumatic fever is caused by its destructive effects on cardiac valve tissue.

Signs of a preceding streptococcal infection include: recent scarlet Rheumatic fever, raised antistreptolysin O or other streptococcal antibody titre, or positive throat culture.

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Rheumatic fever can be prevented by effectively and promptly treating strep throat with antibiotics.

Management of rheumatic fever is directed toward the reduction of inflammation with anti-inflammatory medications such as aspirin or corticosteroids.

In Western countries, rheumatic fever has become fairly rare since the 1960s, probably due to the widespread use of antibiotics to treat streptococcus infections.

Rheumatic fever primarily affects children between ages 5 and 17 years and occurs approximately 20 days after strep throat.

Persons who have had a case of rheumatic fever have a tendency to develop flare-ups with repeated strep infections.

Recurrence of rheumatic fever is relatively common in the absence of maintenance of low dose antibiotics, especially during the first three to five years after the first episode.