Rheumatic Fever: a neglected and underdiagnosed disease. New perspective on diagnosis and prevention

The Rheumatic fever (RF) and the rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remain important health problems among populations of developing countries. The number of studies is scarce, and public and private investments are practically inexistent. In addition, the cases of rheumatic fever are underdiagnosed, and are recognized only following permanent valve damage through the manifestation of carditis, more frequently represented by mitral stenosis.

In high-income countries, a tonsillitis is only a “throat infection”. However, in developing countries, or even those of average income, as it is the case of Brazil, it may be a harbinger of rheumatic heart disease, a disease that kills approximately 233,00 to 500,000 of RF/RHD sufferers per year globally. According to a projection by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the latest census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (“Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística”, IBGE), it is estimated that annually in Brazil 10 million streptococcal pharygotonsillitis occur, totaling thirty Thousand new RF cases, of which up to half may evolve with cardiac involvement.

[…]