Cardiovascular journal of Africa
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Rheumatic fever (RF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) are still major medical and public health problems mainly in developing countries. Pilot studies conducted during the last five decades in developed and developing countries indicated that the prevention and control of RF/RHD is possible. During the 1970s and 1980s, epidemiological studies were carried out in selected areas of Cuba in order to determine the prevalence and characteristics of RF/RHD, and to test several long-term strategies for prevention of the diseases. ⋯ There was a progressive decline in the occurrence and severity of acute RF and RHD, with a marked decrease in the prevalence of RHD in school children from 2.27 patients per 1,000 children in 1986 to 0.24 per 1,000 in 1996. A marked and progressive decline was also seen in the incidence and severity of acute RF in five- to 25-year-olds, from 18.6 patients per 100,000 in 1986 to 2.5 per 100,000 in 1996. There was an even more marked reduction in recurrent attacks of RF from 6.4 to 0.4 patients per 100,000, as well as in the number and severity of patients requiring hospitalisation and surgical care. Regular compliance with secondary prophylaxis increased progressively and the direct costs related to treatment of RF/RHD decreased with time. The implementation of the programme did not incur much additional cost for healthcare. Five years after the project ended, most of the measures initiated at the start of the programme were still in place and occurrence of RF/RHD was low.