The American Heart Association recommends that anyone who has experienced rheumatic fever take prophylactic, or preventive, doses of antibiotics. The amount of time a person should take these is different for each individual patient. Most children take drugs into adulthood to combat any further infections.
Rheumatic fever has taken its toll on America throughout the years. All in all, rheumatic fever has affected over 1.8 million Americans. It was at its peak about 40 years ago, and the American people feared there was another epidemic on the horizon. It may be close to gone, but it is not forgotten. 15,000 children and adolescents died in 1950 alone. Even though it has been cut down significantly, rheumatic fever continues to kill about 5,000 people each year.
Was there any way to stop it? Now doctors look at their treatments in the 1950s as trivial. If the bacteria hadn’t changed, would we have had another epidemic on our hands? What can we look forward to in the future? There are some obvious limitations on where we can go with antibiotics. With antibiotics we can never expect to eradicate rheumatic fever. To get rid of it forever, we can only hope for a vaccine. Without the vaccine, the bacteria might change again, and give us an unexpected glimpse back to the horrors of the 1950s. Some advances have been made to produce the vaccine, but have been put on the “back-burner” due to the low mortality rate.
Rheumatic fever has affected over half a million people around the world and their families. Although we can’t seem to stop it, we can comfort those who suffer from it. Perhaps one day we may see a vaccine and an end to rheumatic fever. Until then, we can study and learn about the symptoms, causes, risk factors, and treatments, in the hopes that we can rid the world of another disease.
