Rheumatic heart disease is a very specific type of heart disease in which the heart’s valves are damaged by rheumatic fever.  Those that have this condition usually have it start off as strep throat that comes from the streptococcal infection.  Although most people think of strep throat as nothing to worry about, without proper treatment it can lead to a wide range of conditions including doing damage to your heart.  There are many cases of rheumatic disease showing up around the world.  Yet, as the statistics show, there can be some help for those that suffer from this condition.

Rheumatic fever that leads to heart disease has been estimated to have killed some 3500 plus Americans in 2003.  This number of deaths was twice the number of women then men.  Yet, there have been additional changes in the times since then, even. Throughout the last several decades, rheumatic fever has been dropped in occurrences dramatically.  One reason for this is the ability to use antibiotics on the condition.  For example, in 1950, some 15,000 Americans died of heart disease that was caused by rheumatic fever.  This number is much higher than it is today.

The main reason that these deaths have dropped so much so in the last decades is because more and more doctors are treating strep throat with antibiotics, instead of allowing it to “heal” on its own, as a standard sore throat would.  Yet, one of the largest reasons that people don’t get the help they need is because they don’t get in to see the doctor if they think they have strep.  They put it off and it then leads to rheumatic fever.

Although this condition is very much something that can happen today, it is less likely to simply because doctors can treat it before it does damage to the heart.  If you feel as if you have strep throat, call your doctor and tell him.  If and when he decides that you need antibiotics, take them.  You could be saving your heart from diseases.

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