Who discovered Rheumatic Fever?
Rheumatic fever has been known for many centuries. Baillou (1538-1616) first distinguished acute arthritis from gout. Sydenham (1624-1668) described chorea but did not associate it with acute rheumatic fever (ARF). In 1812, Charles Wells associated rheumatism with carditis and provided the first description of the subcutaneous nodules. In 1836, Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud and, in 1889, Walter Cheadle published classic works on the subject. The association between sore throat and rheumatic fever was not made until 1880. The connection with scarlet fever was made in the early 1900s. In 1944, the Jones criteria were formulated to assist disease identification. These criteria, with some modification, remain in use today. The introduction of antibiotics in the late 1940s allowed for the development of treatment and preventive strategies. The dramatic decline in the incidence of rheumatic fever is thought to be largely owing to antibiotic treatment of streptococcal infection T. Duckett Jones, MD
