Word: schwentker
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...publicity has led the public to chip in over $94 per polio patient for research and treatment, but for every rheumatic fever victim, only 3? has been spent. For such work as the new Hopkins program, 146 U.S. insurance companies recently set up a joint research fund. Said Dr. Schwentker last week: "They have begun to realize that a crippled heart is worse than a withered...
...second stage follows two to six weeks later. Typical symptoms: swollen joints, fever, rheumatic nodules at the elbow, knee and other joints. "When it is typical, the disease is easy to diagnose," says Dr. Schwentker, "but the big majority of cases are not typical. The patient may suffer from vague, fleeting pains in the joints and have a low fever." Mistakes in diagnosis are again common until the heart's valves and blood vessels become inflamed...
...third stage, damage to the heart may be prevented by good care (mostly a long rest in bed). But, says Dr. Schwentker, "sometimes damage occurs even under the very best of care. More often it occurs because the very best care is not available...
Murkiest problem is how the infection affects the heart, and in what form. Working on rabbits, Dr. Schwentker is now testing a theory that the antibodies which form in the blood to fight the infection also attack the heart...
Look to the Family. While Dr. Schwentker studies his rabbits, Dr. Taussig will continue her clinical work with child victims of the disease. She will also study the sociological factors which seem to be important in the spread of rheumatic fever. It tends to run in families, for example, and is far commoner in big cities than in the country, most often hits poor and underprivileged children...