Rheumatic fever

Rheumatic fever is a condition that can cause wide spread inflammation throughout the body. Symptoms of rheumatic fever include joint pain, skin rashes and jerky body movements.

Rheumatic fever develops as a complication of a type of bacterial throat infection known as a streptococcal infection (also known as ‘strep throat’).

Rheumatic fever can cause permanent damage to the valves of the heart, which is known as rheumatic heart disease. Rheumatic heart disease can cause potentially serious complications, such as heart failure, stroke and death.

While there is no cure for rheumatic fever, the symptoms can be relieved using a combination of antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medications and anticonvulsants (used to control the jerky body movements).

How common is rheumatic fever?

Before the widespread introduction of antibiotics, rheumatic fever was one of the leading causes of acquired heart disease in England.

Now, due to antibiotics and an increase in levels of public sanitation and living standards (poor sanitation and over-crowding are major risk factors for streptococcal throat infection), the condition is rare. It is estimated that less than one in every 100,000 people is affected by rheumatic fever in England each year.

Rheumatic fever remains a widespread condition in other parts of the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, south central Asia, and the indigenous population of Australia and New Zealand (the Aborigine and Maori communities).

The majority of cases of rheumatic fever affect children aged 5–15. Adults make up 20% of cases.

The condition affects both sexes equally, though girls and women tend to have more severe symptoms.

Outlook

If treated with antibiotics, the outlook for rheumatic fever is moderately good as the antibiotics reduce the risk of a person developing rheumatic heart disease, from an estimated 60–70% to 9–34%.

Deaths arising from rheumatic fever are now rare, especially in children. In 2008, there were 15 deaths due to rheumatic fever in England and Wales, all of which occurred in people aged 50 or over.