New hope for children at risk of New Zealand’s most iniquitous disease

Potentially deadly, rheumatic fever has been eradicated in most of the developed world. Fresh research may help New Zealand finally follow suit

Nathanial Harland was four years old when his daycare teachers noticed the usually playful boy was lethargic and alone in a corner. That day a doctor listened to the child's chest and told his family to take Nathaniel straight to hospital - he had a heart murmur.

Further testing showed his heart had been damaged from an earlier, undiagnosed bout of rheumatic fever, a serious but entirely preventable disease that has been all but wiped out in most developed countries but which is still present in New Zealand and Australia.