Open AccessRheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in Gauteng on the decline: Experience at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa
Author(s) -
Antoinette Cilliers
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
samj. south african medical journal/south african medical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.527
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 2078-5135
pISSN - 0256-9574
DOI - 10.7196/samj.8318
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , population , referral , indigenous , pediatrics , socioeconomic status , rheumatic fever , heart disease , acute rheumatic fever , demography , family medicine , environmental health , ecology , physics , sociology , optics , biology
The incidence of rheumatic fever (RF) and its complications has waned over the past three to four decades throughout the Western world, but RF remains a problem in developing countries and in the indigenous populations of some well-resourced countries. A marked decline in children presenting with acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and chronic rheumatic heart disease (RHD) has been observed over the past two decades at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) in southern Gauteng Province, South Africa, which mainly serves the periurban population of Soweto.