Rheumatic fever is one of the complex inflammatory diseases, it can grow either as a complication of untreated or poorly treated streptococcal throat infection. Children between the ages of 5 and 15 are more prone to this condition, but it can occur at any age. Further, let’s dive into this blog to know the causes, symptoms, complications, and especially prevention of rheumatic fever.
What is rheumatic fever?
The common issue associated with strep throat is rheumatic fever, one of the most complex illnesses that always arise among children between the ages of 5 and 15. As mentioned above, adults and older children can also develop this illness. This condition will cause painful joints, fever, fatigue, and in extreme cases, heart damage, notably in the valves, leading to rheumatic heart disease.
Mostly, rheumatic fever occurs when the immune system mistakenly disturbs the healthy tissues, resulting in inflammation. Timely diagnosis and rheumatic fever treatment with antibiotics will help in the prevention of rheumatic fever. Reaching out to the best rheumatology hospital in Coimbatore, frequent screening and long-term antibiotic therapy may be significant to avoid recurrence.
Both scarlet fever and strep throat are caused by a type of bacteria known as A Streptococcus. Usually, antibiotics will be recommended by the healthcare providers. One of the rare complications that arises from scarlet fever and strep throat is rheumatic fever. When you fail to treat any one of these infections, it can happen.
What are the common signs of rheumatic fever?
Rheumatic fever will disturb individuals in various ways few will have mild strep, and they will not be aware that they have an infection until experiencing rheumatic fever. Most of the time, the symptoms of rheumatic fever align with symptoms of other health issues. Also, the signs of rheumatic fever will vary based on which part of your child’s body is affected. If you suspect that your child is suffering from rheumatic fever, reach out to the healthcare provider to get rheumatic fever treatment immediately because this is one of the complex conditions.
The primary symptom experienced by individuals with rheumatic fever is rash. Those rashes will be red and flat with abnormal edges. Other common signs of rheumatic fever include:
- Inflamed, tender, and red joints, notably in your child’s knees, elbows, and ankles, move around every day.
- Experiencing jerky movements in the kid’s hands, feet, or other body parts.
- Tiny bumps beneath the skin.
- Fatigue.
- Fever.
- Sudden and intense head pain.
- Muscle pain.
- Inflamed and red tonsils.
What are the causes of rheumatic fever?
A rheumatic fever will be caused when an unwanted reaction is performed on your kid’s immune system that combats the normal and healthy tissue. Notably, scarlet fever infection or strep throat will trigger this overreaction. This occurs when you are failing to offer group treatment A Streptococcus infection to your child. Then automatically your body’s defense will start to fight back, and this reaction will affect the healthy tissues instead of fighting against the bacteria.
Who is more prone to rheumatic fever?
Rheumatic fever will strike anyone at any time. But kids and teenagers are more prone to this condition. When you untreated strep throat or scarlet fever infection for two to three weeks, the rheumatic fever will develop. Usually, children younger than the age of 5 and over the age of 15 will not easily get rheumatic fever.
In most cases, individuals who have strep throat or scarlet fever don’t get rheumatic fever. This will happen only when the kids are not getting proper rheumatic fever treatment for the infections.
Who is at risk of developing rheumatic fever?
Some factors will surge the risk of developing rheumatic fever, like:
- Your surroundings: Individuals who live in poor medical resource areas can easily develop rheumatic disease. Simply, dwelling in an area where it is hard to get medicines or medical help will also put your kids at risk.
- Age: As we mentioned above, usually rheumatic fever is commonly noticed among children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 15.
- Overall health: Further, if your baby naturally has a low immune system, it will increase the risk. This rheumatic fever is more common among kids with strep infection.
- Family history: If anyone in your family circle has experienced rheumatic fever already, other family members are more likely to develop rheumatic fever.
- Crowded areas: In crowded places bacteria will easily spread and it will increase the risk of rheumatic fever,
In very rare circumstances, the rheumatic fever will disturb adults as well. Further, rheumatic fever is not contagious, you cannot give or get it from anyone. But both scarlet fever and strep throat are contagious, these infections usually develop through respiratory droplets.
Does rheumatic fever affect my heart?
Rheumatic fever does not always disturb your heart, but at times it will affect your heart tissues, notably the heart valves. These scarred tissues won’t work properly. When you overlook it, this will result in permanent damage. Doctors refer to this condition as congestive heart failure or rheumatic heart disease.
When your child’s heart valve is highly damaged surgery will be performed to repair or replace the damaged valves. Also, you need to understand that heart disease will arise only after 10 to 20 years of the onset of rheumatic fever. So getting regular health checkups with your healthcare provider is significant.
Will rheumatic fever result in rheumatoid arthritis?
Both rheumatic fever and rheumatic arthritis will have similar symptoms in the initial stages, but there is no connection between these conditions. But both will potentially affect the joints of your child, while rheumatic fever usually lasts just for a week, whereas rheumatic arthritis is a lifelong condition.
How to diagnose rheumatic fever?
If your child has been dealing with a sore throat for days, consider reaching out to the doctor. Treating a group A streptococcal infection will highly help in preventing rheumatic fever. In case the doctor suspects rheumatic fever, firstly they will swab your kid’s throat to find group A Streptococcus bacteria. They will use a fast strep test or suggest a throat culture. Usually, within 10 minutes you can get the results of the strep test, but to get the result of throat culture you need to wait at least for a day. Also, these rapid strep tests at times will give false-negative results.
What are the common tests taken to diagnose rheumatic fever?
After noticing the signs of rheumatic fever in your child doctors will suggest the tests like:
- Blood tests: Mostly healthcare providers will recommend blood tests to identify the strep infection. Usually, blood tests will help in identifying the antibodies, when no longer the bacteria show up on tests.
- Heart tests: Just to diagnose the performance of your child’s heart function, this test will be carried out. These tests include an electrocardiogram or an echocardiogram.
What is meant by Jones criteria for rheumatic fever?
At times, doctors will even use Jones criteria to identify rheumatic fever. To get this test done, your child must have 2 major or 1 major and 2 minor criteria from the below-mentioned symptoms. Also, there should the evidence of previous group A streptococcal infection.
The major criteria include:
- Several joints affected by arthritis
- Inflammation in heart
- Under skin bumps (nodules)
- Fast, jerky movements
- Skin rash
The minor criteria include:
- Fever
- Elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)
- Pain in joints
- Changes in electrocardiogram
- Family history of rheumatic fever or rheumatic disease
How to treat rheumatic fever?
The rheumatic fever treatment focuses on treating bacterial infection to prevent the progression. Then the rheumatic fever treatment addresses swelling inside your kid’s body. Further, the common rheumatic fever treatment includes:
- Antibiotics: As mentioned above, doctors will suggest antibiotics as a rheumatic fever treatment to address your underlying bacterial infection.
- Anti-inflammatory medications: The doctor will suggest a medication to minimize the swelling throughout your kid’s body. The common signs such as joint pain will be relieved when taking this medication. In severe cases, doctors will suggest a stronger medication.
- Other therapies: Everyone will experience rheumatic fever in different ways. Further, depending on your kid’s condition, doctors will recommend the rheumatic fever treatment. In extreme cases, heart surgery or joint treatments will be required to treat serious complications.
How to prevent rheumatic fever?
Treating scarlet fever and strep throat on time remains the best way to prevention of rheumatic fever. Always scarlet fever and strep throat are obvious and can be easily identified. In case, these issues last more than three days it’s crucial to consult with the best rheumatologist in Coimbatore immediately to get better outcomes.
Make sure to strictly follow your healthcare provider’s instructions if your child has scarlet fever or strep throat. Your child needs to get the full course of antibiotics, even after feeling better. Further, the infection will not go away making your kid more prone to rheumatic fever.
By maintaining good hygiene, your child can avoid developing bacterial infections. It will help in preventing this infection to others from your child. Ensure your child always does the below-mentioned points for the effective prevention of rheumatic fever:
- Often washing hands with soap and water.
- Sneezing or coughing into a tissue, their upper shoulder, or elbow.
- Use a tissue for blowing their nose or sneezing, next throw it away and wash their hands.
After getting diagnosed with rheumatic fever sometimes you are recommended to take medications for a long term. This will greatly help in preventing future bouts of strep throat and remains a prevention of rheumatic fever.
Can rheumatic fever come back?
There are more chances of getting rheumatic fever again if your child is affected by strep throat or scarlet fever. In some cases, doctors will prescribe to take antibiotics for several years or possibly the entire life. This rheumatic fever treatment method is known as antibiotic prophylaxis. It will prevent the further development of another strep infection and prevent the recurrence of rheumatic fever.
Important takeaway:
In conclusion, we can say that with the help of timely rheumatic fever treatment, one can manage this condition effectively. Whenever facing the symptoms you need to consider the diagnostic tests for the prevention of rheumatic fever. When they develop, it will affect your kid’s joints, heart, skin, or nervous system. Rheumatic fever is a complex condition that can come back, when overlooked or failing to get rheumatic fever treatment this condition may also cause life-threatening complications. To protect your child’s health in the long term get regular checkups.
Mostly, kids and teens are prone to this, in extreme cases, it will result in complex health issues that disturb your kid’s heart, joints, and other organs. If you feel that your child is dealing with the symptoms of rheumatic fever, take them to the doctor right away. This is the finest method to prevent rheumatic fever. Often individuals with rheumatic fever need to take this medical care for a lifetime to safeguard their health.
