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VIEWS & REVIEWS: Theodore Dalrymple A historical whopper BMJ 2007; 334: 159 [Full text]

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Rheumatic fever still very much with us

Andrew Jamieson   (20 January 2007)

Rheumatic fever still very much with us 20 January 2007
Andrew Jamieson, Rural Medical Officer Alyangula. NT 0885 Australia Send response to journal: Re: Rheumatic fever still very much with us	In the spirit of the author’s self admitted pursuit of pedantry, I’d like to point out that rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease has not all but disappeared worldwide, and remains a very significant cause of morbidity and mortality. In the words of Darapetis and Currie (1997), these entities “continue to affect millions of people and cause hundreds of thousands of deaths annually around the world”. Furthermore, the authors state that “The highest reported incidence rates of acute rheumatic fever in the world occur in the Aboriginal population of the northern region (Top End) of Australia's Northern Territory”- which, although displaying similarities to the developing world, exists in a country that is for the most part decidedly “first world”. Ref: 1. Carapetis JR, Currie BJ. Clinical epidemiology of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in tropical Australia. Adv Exp Med Biol 1997;418:233-236 Competing interests: None declared