Have You Heard about Rheumatic Heart Disease?

Not many people know about rheumatic heart disease. It starts from rheumatic fever, an inflammatory disease that affects connective tissues in many body parts, such as heart, brain, skin, and joints. When the rheumatic fever damages the heart valve, the condition is called rheumatic heart disease. This is common to happen for children between five and fifteen years of age. Sadly, the resulting rheumatic heart disease usually will last for life.

Rheumatic fever by itself is a serious situation. When it compounds into rheumatic heart disease the condition is very severe. Treatments will be much more difficult and you will need a long and tricky recovery time. Please bear in mind that even if you are diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease, the situation is not necessarily hopeless. Many ways are available to treat rheumatic heart disease and reduce its life threatening risk. There are certain steps that can be used for treatment that will be explored below. Next, the symptoms of rheumatic heart disease are explained because it is important for you to know the symptoms in order to have early treatments.

Symptoms and treatments of rheumatic heart disease

The earliest symptom of rheumatic heart disease may start with common strep throat infections. It is quite surprising actually because strep throat is pretty common to happen to many people who do not treat sore throat properly. You should not be alarmed because it is rarely for strep throat to develop into rheumatic heart disease. The good news is the number of rheumatic heart disease cases has gone down significantly since 1960s. However, you need to keep on guard because even if it is rare to happen nowadays, it is still possible for you to contract the disease.

When you have rheumatic heart disease, usually the treatment is simpler than other types of heart disease. Cortisteroid anti-inflammatory medication is the common medication to reduce and even reverse cardiac problems that may develop due to the fever. However, in some occasion, complex treatment, like surgery, is necessary.

Preventing rheumatic heart disease

The best way to prevent rheumatic heart disease is by preventing rheumatic fever from happening. If you treat strep throat with penicillin and antibiotics, you should be able to prevent the development of rheumatic fever. If you have contracted rheumatic fever before, your risk to experience heart disease is increased. Sometimes medications can continue for life in this situation. Therefore, it is best to treat throat problems early before it develops into severe problems.