Transience, cost barriers to rheumatic fever treatment

Senior clinicians are calling for a national register of people with rheumatic fever, to help protect younger people who are missing vital treatment. A four-year nationwide study has found recurrences of the illness are linked to people not keeping up with their medication, with adolescents and young adults most at risk. A children's heart specialist at Starship Hospital says Maori and Pasifika communities are among the most vulnerable. Associate professor Nigel Wilson told our reporter Tracy Neal it's also because young people fall off the re-call register once they reach a certain age.