Health Professionals
Notification of rheumatic fever
Please notify all suspected and confirmed cases of rheumatic fever (both acute and recurrent attacks) to the Medical Officer of Health.
Contact options:
Phone: 0800 221 555, select option 3
Complete the Infectious Disease Notification Form and fax to 0800 66 89 34
Email: toiteorasupport@bopdhb.govt.nz
Urgent/After hours: 0800 221 555, select option 7
On-call Medical Officer of Health: 07 579 8000 (Tauranga Hospital)
Rheumatic fever: A problem illness in the Bay of Plenty
The annual incidence of rheumatic fever in the Bay of Plenty is almost three times the New Zealand rate. Accordingly Toi Te Ora – Public Health Service is running rheumatic fever awareness campaigns. A key message is ‘sore throats matter’. The underlying premise is that early diagnosis and treatment of strep throat will reduce the incidence of Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF).
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.
This web page contains 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. There is also a series of presentations developed by the World Heart Federation.
Sore throats and rheumatic fever: Advice for GPs and Practice Nurses - Letter from Dr Phil Shoemack, Medical Officer of Health April 2011
Best Practice Journal, issue 37, August 2011 - Rheumatic fever in Maori: What can we do better?
National Heart Foundation of New Zealand - Rheumatic Fever Guidelines
-
Rheumatic Fever Guideline 1: Diagnosis, Management and Secondary Prevention
-
Rheumatic Fever Guideline 2: Group A Streptococcal Sore Throat Management
-
Rheumatic Fever Guideline 3: Proposed Rhuematic Fever Primary Prevention Programme
Algorithm 1 to 4
-
Algorithm 1: A Guide for Diagnosis of Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF)
-
Algorithm 2: A Guide for the Use of Echocardiography in Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF)
-
Algorithm 3: A Guide for the Duration of Secondary Prophylaxis in Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF)
Rheumatic Fever in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes district
Toi Te Ora – Public Health Service Reports
PowerPoint presentations
-
Rheumatic Fever in the Bay Of Plenty and Lakes – A bigger problem than we thought - Dr Phil Shoemack
Poster presentations
-
The impact of RHD in the EBOP 2005-9 - Dr John Malcolm (2011)
-
Poster presentation PHA conference 2010 - Lindsay Lowe
World Heart Federation (WHF)
WHF PowerPoint Rheumatic Fever presentations
< Back
