June 11, 2020
Spike in fever cases as system recovers from COVID
A south Auckland GP fears a spike in rheumatic fever cases as the health system tries to get back to normal after the struggle to shit down COVID-19.
Dr Rawiri Jansen says there is a huge backlog of preventative health measures which could not be done over the past 12 weeks, with 64,000 cervical smears missed and thousands of bowel screening tests.
He says he rheumatic fever rate is already showing signs of increase.
"All of our kids, I want them at school and I want them being checked for sore throats but right now, until they change the case definition, if they say sore throat we send them home, we say 'you've got to get COVID tested.' It's a timing issue. It's going to be sorted out in the next few days but this week we've been hearing from teachers and principals saying 'please don't send our kids home, they've just got back,'" Dr Jansen says.
He wants to see schools and clinics get active and ensure tests are done.
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