Is rheumatic fever a genetic disorder?
Dr Anand Malaviya
Head of the Department of Medicine and Chief of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology Services,
All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi Consultant Rheumatologist, 'A&R Clinic'
Visiting Sr. Consultant, Rheumatologist, ISIC Superspeciality Hospital, New Delhi.
Head of the Department of Medicine and Chief of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology Services,
All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi Consultant Rheumatologist, 'A&R Clinic'
Visiting Sr. Consultant, Rheumatologist, ISIC Superspeciality Hospital, New Delhi.
Q: Is rheumatic fever a genetic disorder? If I have rheumatic fever then will it affect my children too?
A:I wish to tell you that rheumatic fever is a heart disease that does not cause persistent joint disease (it is only a transient, fleeting joint pain for a few days) and never causes a chronic persistent joint disease. It is a disease of children usually below 15 years of age. As far as I know rheumatic fever and rheuematic heart disease are not genetic in nature. If your heart is normal then, it is certain that you NEVER had rheumatic fever. Somebody could have made a wrong diagnosis