Research Paper on:
Epidemiology of Rheumatic Fever

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and pneumonia, were the major causes of mortality in the United States and throughout much of the world (Kalache et al., 2002). Specifically, it is a medical issue that  is derived from rheumatism, or the migration of polyarthritis throughout the body that originates in a streptococcal bacteria that resides in the throat (Sample, 2002). This bacteria invades the  joints visibly noted through skin rashes and can also attack one or more valves of the heart (Sample, 2002). During the 1950s, it was T. Duckett Jones who collectively  assembled the signs and symptoms of this disease, major and minor, and categorized them in a systematic way that would assist in what had been, up until that time, an  elusive diagnosis, due to its rather ambiguous, flu-like symptoms (Stollerman, 1997). Its significance, at least historically speaking, cannot be disputed, for rheumatic fever had long posed a serious threat  to public health, although today, it is actually only responsible for less than two percent of medical maladies, which would seem to hardly qualify it as a major health risk  (Kalache, 2002). However, statistics can be deceiving, and contrary to the popular view that rheumatic fever has been "cured," the virulent disease is still, unfortunately, alive and well in  many parts of the world, including the United States. In any type of epidemiological consideration of rheumatic fever, it is important to consider familial susceptibility, for as one medical  researcher explains, "We know certain individuals are more likely to get the disease, and theres a feeling theres a genetic predisposition" (Sample, 2002). The factors of malnutrition, overcrowding and  socioeconomic status must also be examined in order to gain a greater understanding as to where the germs accumulate and what causes them to spread (Rheumatic Fever, 2002). The agent