Children and adults with rheumatic heart disease in low- and middle-income countries face high mortality and morbidity, highlighting the critical need for early detection and treatment programs.
Patients with clinical rheumatic heart disease have high mortality and morbidity despite being young; those from low- and lower-middle-income countries had a poorer prognosis associated with advanced disease and low education. Programs focused on early detection and the treatment of clinical rheumatic heart disease are required to improve outcomes.
Zühlke et al. (Wed,) studied this question.