54 Acute Rheumatic Fever Anita Saxena, Vera D Aiello, Cleonice Mota Abstract Rheumatic fever is an acute, diffuse, and nonsuppurative inflammatory disease that occurs as a late complication after an untreated pharyngotonsillitis The initial streptococcal pharyngotonsillitis is followed by the latent period and then by the acute and chronic phases The chronic phase is also known as rheumatic heart disease, when the cardiac lesions remain as sequels of the acute phase The disease still presents a high incidence in resource-limited settings, where it is the most frequent cardiovascular disease in people younger than 25 years Diagnosis is made by the Jones criteria Management is primarily symptomatic Prevention of rheumatic fever is possible but challenging; it requires action at multiple levels Keywords Rheumatic fever; Epidemiology; Prevention