Information For | Pārongo Education Sector Rheumatic Fever

Rheumatic Fever

School based throat swabbing programmes are aimed at preventing rheumatic fever by detecting and treating streptococcal throat infection (‘strep throat’).

View the list of throat swabbing teams and services in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes.

Sandra Innes Smith is employed by Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance (EBPHA) as the rheumatic fever clinical lead.

Contact Sandra.Innes-Smith@ebpha.org.nz for further information. 

Leanne Kirk is the co-ordinator of the Rotorua school based sore throat swabbing programme that operates out of Western Heights Health Centre.

Contact lkirk@raphs.org.nz for further information.

The rheumatic fever sector group

The rheumatic fever sector group (shown in the photo above) is committed to reducing rates of rheumatic fever in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes districts.

The sector teams meet together once per term to share information, resources and ideas.

The sector group consists of community health workers and nurses from:

  

Heart Foundation 'Sore Throats Matter' Teaching Units

The Heart Foundation developed teaching units for years 1-8 based on the NZ school curriculum's Health and Physical Education plan.

The aim of the Teaching units is to increase awareness of rheumatic fever prevention to children and teachers in high risk populations of NZ.

Read the Sore Throats Matter Teaching Kit.

Awareness campaigns

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Bay of Plenty rheumatic fever awareness campaign

Multi-media awareness campaigns ran between March to June from 2010 to 2017

 

Evaluation of the awareness campaigns

  

National rheumatic fever campaigns

View the Health Promotion Agency materials and resources used in the national campaigns.

Resources

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Health Promotion Agency resources

The Health Promotion Agency has a wide variety of rheumatic fever campaign material and resources for health workers and families.  

  • Click here to view resources from the 2014 - 2017 campaigns

 

Ministry of Health resources

  • Click here to view Ministry of Health learning resources

     

Heart Foundation resources

Rheumatic fever resources are available to order from the resource page of the Heart Foundation website 

 

5 messages to keep your family healthy

The 5 messages to keep your family healthy resources are aimed at reducing hospitalisations for preventable diseases such as rheumatic fever and skin infections.

Updated 11 Mar, 2021