1 290 Collins Avenue, Mount Vernon, New York 10552
2 Department of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico, School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106
E. A. Mortimer, Jr., commenting on the "Role of the Pediatrician in Rheumatic Fever Control,"1 deplores the fact that first attacks of rheumatic fever have been reduced only 30% compared with the "prepenicillin" era, whereas prophylaxis has reduced recurrences by 75%. He feels that this is because (A) a significant proportion (from 34% to 56%) of initial attacks occurred in patients whose physicians either did not recognize or treated inadequately the antecedent streptococcal infection, and (B) parents failed to seek medical help for pharyngitis of insufficient severity."