'Not a good illness for a kid to have'

Fewer people are being admitted to hospital with rheumatic fever but the Minister of Health says there is still a lot to do.

The latest figures from the Health Ministry show the disease, which usually starts with a sore throat, hospitalised 135 people in the last year, down from the 175 the previous year.

There has been a 24 percent decrease in hospital admissions for rheumatic fever since 2012, with the number of Maori being admitted down 36 percent.

Lemau Taliulu's five-year-old son AJ complained last week of a sore throat. She quickly booked him in for a throat swab to be assessed for Group A Streptoccocol, a bug which causes rheumatic fever.

"The nurse told me that his swab was positive and I was a bit worried."

"It's not a good illness for a kid to have," she said.

He's now on a 10-day treatment of antibiotics.

The Government has spent over $65 million fighting the illness.

Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman has announced the number of people hospitalised for rheumatic fever has dropped 24 percent in the last year.

"Rheumatic fever is a very devastating disease. It has long-term consequences for children and their families. We're very determined to get that rate down.

"We're making good progress by dropping the rate by 24 percent but there's still more work to do," Mr Coleman said.

While incidences of the illness have decreased across the country, Ministry of Health data shows the fever rate in some of the most at risk areas is on the rise.

The rate of the disease has risen since 2012 in Northland, and Tairawhiti, while the number of cases in Auckland also rose from five in 2012 to 15 in the last year.

A senior GP in Porirua, Bryan Betty, said the illness often indicated other social issues and it needed to be eradicated.

Dr Betty said improving housing was very important in tackling the disease.

"The throat swabbing program I think has been a great start.

"It's really really made a change in terms of what we're doing and how we're approaching rheumatic fever. I think housing is the other big issue. I mean housing is very important. The initiatives with insulating housing is critical," Dr Betty said.

"I'd like to see the program continue and I think the focus on housing needs to continue as well."

In recent months, medical leaders and poverty groups have renewed calls for improvements in housing, especially social housing, with cold, damp conditions contributing to poor health including cases of rheumatic fever.

Minister Jonathan Coleman said work was being done and there was no silver bullet to tackle the disease.

"We're doing more and more all the time. We've insulated 270,000 homes nation-wide.

"We've set some demands around private landlord insulation which will be rolled out over the next few years. We've got the healthy homes initiative. There's always more we can do but the point is we're doing more all the time and we're determined to make a difference for the health of New Zealand families."

Dr Coleman said he was confident rates of the illness will continue to drop.

The Government has set a target of reducing rheumatic fever by two-thirds by June 2017.