Resurgence of acute rheumatic fever: Diligent history taking

Abstract

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is still one of the most common cause of acquired heart disease in school age group children. Though there has been a decline in the past few decades, resurgence of ARF cases have been noted in developing countries. We are hereby reporting a 7 year old male child who presented to us with ARF without any cardiac complications and absence of any serological evidence of recent streptococcal infection. The child however had a history of throat infection prior to joint involvement with this case we want to emphasize the importance of history taking and the fact that even if there is no serological evidence of streptococcal infection, the case has to be treated as ARF with the fulfilment of major and minor criteria to prevent mortality due to cardiac complications.