A new study in the Gulu District of Northern Uganda has found that children with RHD ‘had a 4.5 times greater chance of having a sibling with definite RHD’.

The study’s findings may help RHD programme workers to prioritize individuals to screen for RHD in the country.
 
Currently, over 1,300 people are enrolled in a national RHD registry in Uganda, where the Bridging the Treatment Gap partnership is working to link RHD into an existing national network of HIV/AIDS clinics and primary health care facilities. This integration of RHD services offers opportunities for screening, but identifying and treating streptococcal infections remains a challenge.

However targeted echocardiographic screening represents a cost-effective way to detect and treat RHD before children and adolescents acquire acute rheumatic fever or RHD.

The authors – a team led by Children’s National Health System clinicians and researchers – write: “our study suggests that siblings of children identified with latent RHD are a high-risk group, and should be prioritized for screening”.
 
You can read about the study in more detail on the Children’s National Health System website, while you can access the article here.
 
The RHD Action website also contains more information on the practical and ethical issues around echocardiographic screening.