DEATHS IN CHILDREN FROM RHEUMATIC FEVER AND HEART DISEASE

A recent national statistical study of rheumatic fever and heart disease in children by Wolff¹ reveals that 14,575 deaths from all forms of heart disease occurred among those under 20 years of age in the years 1939 to 1941. A minimum of 12,000 deaths was considered to be caused by acute rheumatic fever and its aftereffects. Compared with six other leading causes of death, with increasing age rheumatic fever held an increasingly high place among the fatal diseases of the white population. In the nonwhite population, the greatest killer was tuberculosis, especially for girls entering the childbearing age. In spite of these facts, a comparison with mortality rates for two previous decades and the single years 1942, 1943 and 1944 demonstrated that rates for heart disease in these age groups for white children was showing a distinct decrease. The decrease was less definite in the nonwhite group. Nonwhite children