The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-11-19
RHEUMATIC FEVER
 SERIOUS DISEASE
Insurance Company's Med. ical Officers Claim ChiI.
 dren Threatened

New York, N. Yp Nov, io-Rhou- matte fever now stands out as the most serious disease that threatens American children, according to the statistieianS and medical officers ot the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. They point out also that thousands of ineapaeitatng CT fatal cases Of heart disease in adults are traeeable to rheumatic fever infees tieng in childhood, representing . loss in productive power that the nation at war can least well afford at this time. Tn an attempt to res duee tho mortality ffem rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease by promoting early diagnosis and proper treatment, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company has started Q nation Wide effort to bring up.to- date information about this for gotten health problem to parents and 10 enlist the interest Of oil prac' t!eing physicians, This campaign ha sbeen undertaken with the nd' vice and cooperation of leading phy. Sieians in the fields of heart disease and chiidren's diseases,
 The statistieians point out that the spread of rheumatic fever ap- pears to be favored by oyererowdine q condition which is unavoidable to- day in many wartime boom towns, Consequently, there is c special need in these communities for informa, ton on measures to minimize the threat of rheumatic fever,
 While rheumatic fever Is much less prevalent than 1t was thirty or even ten years ago the statisticians explain, the need for reducing It's incidence and mortality still further Is shown by the fact that between ages 10 and i4 1t causes more deaths than any other disease between D and 9 years 1t is outranked in nor tality only by the aggregate Of the four principal communicable diseas- es Of childhood, and between l5 and 24 years only by tuberculosis,
 Moreover, rheumatic fever Is now known to be a chronic condition, commonly beginning with a series of acute attacks In childhood and extending to adult life. Every new attack may cause some damage to the heart. Although the onset of the disease Is usually during child hood, most of the deaths occur In adult life.
 While the trend of mortality from rheumatic fever and from heart disease in childhood and early adult life has been steadily down. ward" the statisticians comment yet rheumatic fever has become re- latively more important, because other diseases have declined even faster. In the past decade rheu- matic fever has been responsible for one out of every eight deaths from disease among children and young adults; three decades ago 1t ac- counted for about one in every elev- en deaths"
 Pointing out that the decline in rheumatic fever has resulted only in a minor degree from any specific attack upon 1t, but is rather rec flection of the general improvement in the health status of American children. the Metropolitan's welfare and medical authorities say that enough is now known about the dis ease to obtain better control of il than has previously been achieved The first step in attaining this ob- Jective is to spread this knowledge, they explain. "and 1t Is with this purpose in mind that the Company; national campaign against rheu- matic fteer has been launched"