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A Conquered Disease?; Paul Rhodes, MD; Ham Jackson, MD

JAMA. 1975;234(2):157-158.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

NOT ONLY has the incidence of rheumatic fever been decreasing since 1900, but the florid manifestations have also been decreasing. Rheumatic fever is no longer a dramatic disease, and many physicians no longer consider it of much significance. But, is it a bygone, conquered disease?

Officially, rheumatic fever is apparently grossly underreported in most states.¹ For example, in Oklahoma, eight cases of acute rheumatic fever were reported in 1969, but Silberg et al² surveyed all the Oklahoma hospitals for that year and found an overall incidence of 4.2/100,000 persons, which does not include nonhospitalized cases. Age-specific rates in the 5- to 9- and 10- to 14-year age groups were 11.3 and 14.2/100,000, respectively.

Colorado

The figures are equally confusing for Colorado, which has a reputation for high rates of streptococcal disease and rheumatic fever because of the high incidence in the military camps of World War II. In . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Denver

From the Departments of Pediatrics (Dr. Rhodes) and Medicine, University of Colorado, and the Colorado Heart Association, Denver.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to 2310 Wadsworth Blvd, Lakewood, CO 80215 (Dr. Rhodes).

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