These cells are streptococcal primed during the throat infection and able to recognise self-antigens by molecular mimicry.
From then on, penicillin has been the drug of choice for treatment of streptococcal infection, and rheumatic fever is no exception.
The primary aim is to prevent the initial attack of rheumatic fever through the correct treatment of the streptococcal infection.
Rheumatic polyarthritis can be extremely variable, both as to intensity and time, and confirmatory evidence of a preceding streptococcal infection can be equivocal.
These authors coined the term 'biological mimicry' in order to explain the mechanism by which the crossreactivity observed between human and streptococcal antigens occurred.
Many studies have focused on identifying the crossreactive streptococcal epitope.
The incidence could have increased most in those communities where larger populations would be expected to facilitate streptococcal transmission.
Until the 1940s, the main sources of food-borne streptococcal pharyngitis were milk and milk products.
