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Gurney has intensively studied the disease’s causes and has woven his family history with his research in The Twisted Chain, a new book out Wednesday. His father contracted the disease at age 14, leading to severe health complications later in life.
Speaking to Q+A, the researcher, director of the Cancer and Chronic Conditions Research Group at Otago University, highlighted the long-term impacts of the disease.
“By far, the biggest killer of rheumatic fever is rheumatic heart disease, which happens later in life. There’s this kind of a silent phase in the middle after rheumatic fever as a kid, a sort of silent, clinically silent phase, and then it really kicks in later in life.”
