HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1942, Page 5

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

GROWING PAINS MAY BE DECEPTIVE.

PRECAUTIONS TO OBSERVE

(By the Health Department).

A little bit of rheumatic fever can go a long way—a very long way, because, whether mild or severe, an attack of this insiduous disease very frequently leaves behind it a damaged heart, and a damaged heart is a constant liability. Swollen tender joints, and stiff and sore muscles can cause agonising pain at the time of the attack, but one of the most important features of treatment is to counter the possible effect it may have on the heart. For instance, a child may have rheumatic fever without appearing ill enough to require medical attention. But even mild aching in a joint or an arm or a leg may mean that a child has rheumatic fever. This treacherous affliction is responsible for so many cases of heart disease that no parents can afford to dismiss as “growing pains” any joint or muscle pains complained of by a child. Be on the safe side. Consult a doctor at once, and do what he says. If the child has rheumatic fever, it may have to stay in bed for a considerable period after the symptoms have disappeared in order to prevent heart damage or a recurrence of the infection.

If the rheumatic infection remains unchecked, inflammation of the heart nearly always occurs. Scarring and weakening of the heart muscle and valves usually result. Damage to the valves allows the blood to leak back in the wrong direction when the heart muscle contracts, so that when the doctor listens in to the heart with his stethoscope, he hears an abnormal sound, or a “murmur.” The valve openings may alsd be narrowed, so that the heart has to work doubly hard to force the blood through them. The exact cause of rheumatic fever is not known, but it is held to be due to some form of infection by a germ or a virus, or perhaps by a germ and a virus working together.