Rheumatic fever is a serious illness that can cause damage in your child’s heart as well as swelling, pain in their hips, knees, ankles, elbows and wrists. You may also notice a skin like rash, fever or jerky movements. Over time, most of these symptoms will pass but any damage to your child’s heart may remain permanent.
Rheumatic fever often starts with a sore throat caused by strep bacteria better known as GAS or
Group A Streptococcus, without treatment, strep throat can cause rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever can and will damage your heart, another common term you’ll hear or become familiar with is Rheumatic heart disease. Rheumatic fever is a preventable disease.
To ensure we are doing our part for our community Te Rūnanga 0 Whaingaroa have engaged with the Northland District Health Board to deliver “throat swabbing” within our 6 schools; we also have a fantastic working relationship with Navilluso Medical to deliver the iMoko programme within our schools adding Head and Skin infections into the throat swabbing mix where this has become a more efficient, more holistic approach which is working especially well in Whangaroa.
Below is a list of web links for your perusal.
https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/rheumatic-fever
https://www.health.govt.nz
https://www.northlanddhb.org.nz/PublicHealth/RheumaticFever.aspx
https://imoko.com
