Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is the most common acquired heart disease in children in many countries of the world, especially in developing countries.
The global burden of disease caused by rheumatic fever currently falls disproportionately on children living in the developing world, especially where poverty is widespread.
RHD is a chronic heart condition caused by rheumatic fever that can be prevented and controlled. Rheumatic fever is caused by a preceding group A streptococcal (strep) infection.
Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that may affect many connective tissues of the body, especially those of the heart, joints, brain or skin. It usually starts out as a strep throat (streptococcal) infection. Anyone can get acute rheumatic fever, but it usually occurs in children between the ages of 5 and 15 years. About 60% of people with rheumatic fever develop some degree of subsequent heart disease.
Every part of the heart, including the outer sac (the pericardium), the inner lining (the endocardium) and the valves may be damaged by inflammation caused by acute rheumatic fever. However, the most common form of rheumatic heart disease affects the heart valves, particularly the mitral valve. It may take several years after an episode of rheumatic fever for valve damage to develop or symptoms to appear.
Acute rheumatic fever primarily affects the heart, joints and central nervous system. The major importance of acute rheumatic fever is its ability to cause fibrosis of heart valves, leading to crippling valvular heart disease, heart failure and death.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a throat infection. Symptoms include: fever, multiple painful joints with the joints affected changing with time, involuntary muscle movements, and occasionally a characteristic non-itchy rash known as erythema marginatum. The heart is involved in about half of cases. Damage to the heart valves usually occurs only after multiple attacks but may occasionally occur after a single case of RF. The damaged valves may result in heart failure and also increase the risk of atrial fibrillation and infection of the valves.
HOMOEOPATHIC TREATMENT
Rheumatic heart disease is commonly a disease that starts in the childhood and taken to rest of the life if improperly treated. Homoeopathy has time-tested remedies for the cure of this condition and can remove the disease. it can also bring the ASO values to the normal level. Even the valvular defects can be resolved if the structural change is not so deep and not very old. It also brings Homeopathic medicine is a system of medicine that involves treating diseases on a holistic level. The physician provides the patient with extremely diluted doses of a drug in order to activate the body’s natural healing process. When used in larger doses, the same drug would produce the symptoms of the disease being treated. Treating symptoms with symptom-generating drugs is the foundation of homeopathy.