children s health issues
Rheumatic Fever
Introduction
Rheumatic fever is inflammation of the joints, heart, skin, and nervous system, resulting from a complication of untreated streptococcal infection of the throat. This condition is a reaction to an untreated streptococcal throat infection. Children may have a combination of joint pain, fever, chest pain or palpitations, jerky uncontrollable movements, a rash, and small bumps under the skin. The diagnosis is based on symptoms. Prompt and complete antibiotic treatment of any streptococcal throat infection is the best way to prevent rheumatic fever. Aspirinis given to alleviate pain, and antibiotics are given to eliminate the streptococcal infection. Although rheumatic fever occurs after a streptococcal throat infection ( Sore Throat ), it is not an infection. Rather, it is an inflammatory reaction to the streptococcal infection. The parts of the body most commonly affected by the inflammation include the Joints Heart Skin Nervous system Most people with rheumatic fever recover, but the heart is permanently damaged in a small percentage of people. Rheumatic fever can occur at any age but occurs most often between ages 5 years and 15 years. In the United States, rheumatic fever rarely develops before age 3 or after age 21 and is much less common than in developing countries, probably because antibiotics are widely used to treat streptococcal infections at an early stage. However, the incidence of rheumatic fever sometimes rises and falls in a particular area for unknown reasons. Overcrowded living conditions, undernutrition, and lower social and economic status seem to increase the risk of rheumatic fever. Heredity seems to play a part because the tendency to develop rheumatic fever appears to run in families. In the United States, a child who has a streptococcal throat infection but is not treated has only a less than 1 to 3% chance of developing rheumatic fever. However, about half of the children who have had rheumatic fever develop it again after another streptococcal throat infection if that infection is not treated. Rheumatic fever occurs after streptococcal infections of the throat but not after streptococcal infections of the skin ( Impetigo and Ecthyma ) or other areas of the body. The reasons why are not known. (See also Overview of Bacterial Infections in Children .) 