Can rheumatic fever be transmitted?
Rheumatic fever may sometimes be confused with Juvenille Rheumatoid Arthritis or Rheumatoid Arthritis. Rheumatic fever is not related to either of these diseases. RF is caused a few weeks after a person has a throat infection with streptococcus bacteria. The theory of why this happens is that your immune system forms antibodies to the bacteria. However, these antibodies can sometimes mistake your own cells (most heart, joints and skin) for the bacteria. In turn your immune system lauches an attack against your own body. Not everybody who develops strep throat will get RF. Furthermore, nowadays the strep throat is treated quickly enough by the docs that RF occurs much less often than what it did previously (before the age of antibiotics). To answer your question: while strep can be transmitted, RF cannot be transmitted.
