Global Disease Disparity: Re-examining What We Thought We Knew About Rheumatic Heart Disease

Featured Speaker: Andrea Beaton, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, George Washington University Cardiology, CNHS 

In the late 19th and early 20th century, acute rheumatic fever was considered “childhood’s greatest enemy” in the United States. Now, the disease is nearly eliminated in high-income settings. But, rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease remain prominent in many parts of the world, and is today a disease of disparity in the United States.  

Andrea Beaton, MD lectures on rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. She opens the talk by providing a history of acute rheumatic fever in the United States, from its beginning roots as scarlet fever in the 1860’s, through the Jones Criteria and the mass production of penicillin, to the near elimination of the disease in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  

Beaton notes rheumatic heart disease remains prevalent in areas of the United States, and argues that we need to re-examine our long-held beliefs about rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease to better diagnose and treat the disease, starting with the idea that both are considered “solved cases.”

Using her work with Children’s National in Uganda as a case study, Beaton further argues we must recognize strategies that worked in the United States may not be effective or acceptable in low-income settings.

 You can watch the full lecture here.

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