Joint assault on rheumatic fever

By TONY GEE

A joint community and Northland Health initiative has been launched in Whangaroa to reduce excessively high rates of rheumatic fever among local children.

Public health figures show levels of the disease, which can cause serious and permanent heart damage, are comparable in the Whangaroa area to rates in Third World countries.

Health authorities are not sure of the reason.

Most cases involve children aged between 5 and 14.

Traditionally, Northland has one of the highest rheumatic fever rates in the country, with 10 acute cases last year from 111 notified nationwide. All the Northland cases involved Maori.

On a population basis, this represents almost seven cases per 100,000 people and is more than double the 2001 provisional New Zealand rate of 3 per 100,000.

But in Whangaroa, rates of the disease among children between 5 and 14 years old are 10 times higher per 100,000 population than for Maori children of the same age throughout the rest of New Zealand and 1000 times higher than for European children.

The initiative aims to reduce the rate of disease among Maori groups through a throat-swabbing programme.

Further reading
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