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Sn ne nee em en eS ee NAN ee tae ee February Sth., 9ths, 1957. MAN NEVER WAS - Starring Clifton Webb, Gloria'. Graham KCelen) February LOth., 11th. 2 & 12th. BLOOD ALLEY. Starring 'John Wayne - L. Bacall Cinemascope - (Color) February 13th. th. THE RACK Starring - Paul Newman Anne Frances 2-D NATIONAL HEALTH WEEK (cent a) It has no one characteristic symptom ~ but joint pains and fever are common and hence the name. Other symptoms which very often turn out to be due to something else are pallor, weight loss, nose bleeds, and - poor appetite, iy "Rheumatic Fever almost always affects the heart to some extent, and in two-thirds of the cases, permanently. This permanent effect is a scarring of one or more of the. four valves, -'The scar forms when the -inflam- ation subsides, and persons with such heart scars are said to have Rheumatic Heart Dis- ease - actually a leaking valve and not necessarily a continuing infection, In some this heart damage is so.small that only a Post-Mortem examination can find it, In the majority of cases the trouble need not inter- fere with normal living, Nevertheless, an -- attack of Rheumatic Fever may damage the heart seriously, or the heart may completely recover from the first attack, only to be damaged badly by succeeding attacks, In the last few years, doctors have : learned mich about preventing. these recurrent attacks which often add to the pre- existing heart damage, We know comparatively little about medication, For the child with Rheumatic Fever, the chances of recurrent attacks are reduced as he enters adolescence, and he may be relatively safe after he is 15 or 16, adults may acquire the disease for the first time also but it-is primarily a scourge of the 5 to.10 year group and in whom the heart - damage is likely to be more severe, -In ger- eral the younger the child when he develops (cont'd next col.) 'the attack wears off and the 'and will be eager to get'up. Page 3 (cont'd from prev. col) the iliness, a Dypbeally, the child who develops -- Rheumatic Fever first develops © 'cold, but- the worse. his prognosis, ' this particular cold will be a strepbococcus | haemolyticus infection. . "The next period: over-lying two or. thfee. wee 'ts Silent with no outward signs and the child. 'Seems to have recovered. "The third phase - that of Rkeumati¢ Fever - may last weeks or months and the patient is best treated in hospital, Sometimes the child has severe joint pains and sometimes the fever is high, but large doses of asperin relieve both quickly, After a short while, child looks well, This is the danger point for the disease may still be active. Long rest in bed is essential as Rheumatic Fever is a persistent disease and evidence that the disease is still active may not be present. -Its course during childhood is one of active disease, alternating with freedom from symptoms, Heart damage occurs or is increased by each active phase, Recur- rences diminish after puberty, One disconcerting fact is that many Dehildren and adults are found with Rheumatic Heart Disease and no history, at all of Rheumatic Fever, While the disease is active prolonged bed' rest is essential and is the most import- ant form of treatment. When it becomes quiescent the child is encouraged to be active to the limits of his capacity, In the majority. of cases of Rheumatic Heart Disease recovery of the patient occurs, but the heart may be left partly crippled, usually due to scarring of its valves and when the disease is inactive, the only trace of Rheumatic Fever is found in the heart where the scarring of its valves produce character- istic sounds. This end stage of the disease is chronic Rheumatic Heart Disease - it is very often found on periodic physical examinations. This illness 'Rheumatic Heart Disease, which effects roughly 2% of the school child- ren in United States and Canada, causes 98% of all heart disease in patients under 20, It causes more deaths than all other communicable diseases plus pneumonia together during the lst two decades of life - at least 10 times as many as polio. Unfortunately drugs are of little value in the medication of the disease, but sulfa and penicillin. work well preventing fur- ther attacks, Overcrowding, malnutrition and dampness all. predispose to streptococcal infect- iohs'and thus indirectly to Rheumatic Fever, Tn a town: such as ours the disease is compara- tively rare, as none of these conditions exist. a (cont'd on last page)