Rheumatic heart disease control: the time for a paradigm shift

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a completely preventable, life-threatening complication of group A streptococcal pharyngitis and the commonest cause of acquired heart disease in children and young adults in low- and middle-income countries. Conventional control measures are faced with many obstacles including the difficulty of early diagnosis of bacterial pharyngitis and acute rheumatic fever (ARF) leading to late presentation with established RHD which is not curable. Recent evidence confirmed the role of echocardiography screening of asymptomatic children in the early detection of 'latent' RHD. Benzathine penicillin prophylaxis was shown to be effective in halting the progression of latent RHD. There is enough evidence to warrant the implementation of control strategies that use lower thresholds for the diagnosis of group A streptococcal infection and ARF and we believe that it is high time to introduce an echocardiography screen-to-treat policy in endemic areas.