Rheumatic Fever

Rheumatic fever is a serious inflammatory condition that can affect many parts of your body -- heart, joints, nervous system and skin. Although rheumatic fever can occur at any age, it most frequently occurs in children between the ages of 6 and 15 years. The disease is twice as common in females as it is in males. A child will be considered under a disability for 18 months from the onset of the disability. A child claimant must have chronic rheumatic fever with rheumatic heart disease.

For this condition to be severe enough to meet the Social Security Administration's listing the claimant must have:

• Persistence of Rheumatic fever activity for six months or more, manifested by significant murmurs, cardiomegaly, ventricular dysfunction and other abnormal laboratory findings; OR
• Evidence of chronic heart failure; OR
• Recurrent arrhythmias.

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