Rheumatic Fever

A free rheumatic fever e-learning course from the Ministry of Health is available at Learnonline.health.nz 

This user guide provides information on how to access the course.

The course is free and is aimed at primary care nurses, public health nurses and community health workers working with families whose children are at risk of developing rheumatic fever.  The course is also useful for locum general practitioners, general practitioners new to New Zealand and pharmacists.

Participants will receive a certificate showing they’ve successfully completed the two hour course.

Made up of four modules, the course includes information about:

• rheumatic fever in New Zealand
• how to identify people at high risk of rheumatic fever and how to assess and manage sore throats based on the identified risk
• ways to reduce the transmission of sore throats within the household
• how to identify the main symptoms and signs of rheumatic fever, as well as how it is typically managed

The course was developed in consultation with rheumatic fever experts, primary care nurses and community health workers.

Bay of Plenty and Lakes District Health Boards (DHB) areas have a high incidence of acute rheumatic fever.  Both DHBs now have plans aimed at reducing acute rheumatic fever.  As part of these plans, there are regular public rheumatic fever awareness campaigns.  A key message is ‘stop sore throats hurting hearts’. The underlying premise is that early diagnosis and treatment of strep throat will reduce the incidence of Acute Rheumatic Fever.

As a result of the campaigns, there may be an increase in the number of parents requesting throat swabs for their children. Consequently, we are also promoting the use of the Rheumatic Fever Guidelines published by the Heart Foundation.  

See below for the Bay of Plenty and Lakes DHB plans, information for GPs, links to the Rheumatic Fever Guidelines and information on the epidemiology of rheumatic fever in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes DHBs.

DHB Plans

• Rheumatic Fever Prevention Plan - Bay of Plenty District Health Board

• Rheumatic Fever Prevention Plan - Lakes District Health Board

Primary Care information

• Sore Throat Management Pathway - Bay Navigator

• Rheumatic fever in Māori: What can we do better? - Best Practice Journal, Issue 37, August 2011

   

Heart Foundation - Rheumatic Fever Guidelines

• Rheumatic Fever Guideline 1: Diagnosis, Management and Secondary Prevention (Revised 2014)

• Rheumatic Fever Guideline 2: Group A Streptococcal Sore Throat Management (Revised 2019)

• Rheumatic Fever Guideline 3: Proposed Rheumatic Fever Primary Prevention Programme

Algorithm 1 to 4

• Please note that  Algorithm 1 is now obsolete and has not been replaced (as per 2014 Guideline 1 revision)

• Algorithm 2: A Guide for the Use of Echocardiography in Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) (Revised 2015)

• Algorithm 3: A Guide for the Duration of Secondary Prophylaxis in Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) (Revised 2015)

• Algorithm 4: A Guide for Sore Throat Management (Revised 2019)

Bay of Plenty DHB - clinical resources

• Bay of Plenty DHB Rheumatic Fever Pathway of Care

• Bay Of Plenty DHB ARF checklist - Dr Zarrar Khan / Dr Malcolm

Rheumatic Fever in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes district

Toi Te Ora Public Health Reports

• Lowe, L (2017) Lakes/Bay of Plenty Rheumatic Fever Steering Group 2009-2017 Summary Report

• Twitchin, S (2017) First Hospitalisations for Rheumatic Fever in the Toi Te Ora Public Health Area, Update Report 2017

• Twitchin, S (2014) Rheumatic Fever Hospitalisation Update Report 2014

• Loring, B (2008) Rheumatic Fever in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes District Health Boards: A review of the evidence and recommendations for action

• Gray. G (2009) Epidemiology of Acute Rheumatic Fever in Lakes DHB 1998-2007

   

Poster presentations

• RACP Congress 2014  - Dr John Malcolm

• The impact of RHD in the EBOP 2005-9 - Dr John Malcolm (2011)

• Poster presentation PHA conference 2010 - Dr Jim Miller

• Poster presentation PHA conference 2010 - Lindsay Lowe