THE CHILDREN’S SCOURGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 164, 1 October 1927, Page 12

THE CHILDREN’S SCOURGE

RHEUMATISM JN ENGLAND Striking facts concerning the p-...-, lence of acute rheumatic fever bjZ children in England, and its fatajiS ß suits are contained in a MiniJt—- ! Health report. * °f The present position is summsrtw as follows by the Ministry t— 1 i “A large proportion, probablv I less than 40 per cent, of all 1 from heart disease are of acute rblT, atic origin. Two-thirds of the arm' rheumatic infections which ultima-ei cause these deaths are contracted - v ■ the period of childhood between ages of five and fifteen. I "The younger the age of infection the more likely is the heart to be .e ; fee ted. ai * "Acute rheumatism is probablv , chonic progressive infection which ins. | remain latent for years. j “Attack confers no immunity k,„ rather creates liability to further at tack. ai " "Poverty and urbanisaUon tire no tent predisposing factors. hi citliU particularly dampness of the house an jooars to increase the susceptibility the individual to attack, although thl. point proves extraordinarily e’usiv* when investigated. "One child in every fiftv attendin'public elementary schools in Cities ani towns requires observation and peri odic examination on account of niani festations of rheumatic infec ion anii the danger they imply to the heart" The increase in heart disease mortality is commented upon by si George New map, chief medical officer to the Ministry of Health, who stat-a that last year 50,209 deaths were at. tributed to this cause. It figured as the greatest cause of mortality in th t year, representing ISS per 1,000 deaths Half of this mortality, state* sir George, was due to infective pr „. cesses, such as acute rheumatic fever, while 40 per cent, might be aitributed to rheumatic infection alone.'