ARF and Post-Streptococcal Reactive Arthritis
Acute rheumatic fever and post-streptococcal reactive arthritis are both autoimmune responses to a group A streptococcal infection, but they differ in timing, joint pattern, heart involvement and what they mean for the next decades of care. This review sets out the Jones criteria, why echocardiography is now expected in every suspected case, how to treat arthritis, carditis and chorea, how long secondary prophylaxis should last, and how to separate PSRA from ARF before committing a patient to prophylaxis.