In the winter of 1969, a 14-year-old Whangarei schoolboy called Keg went to a weekend rugby tournament and came home with a sore throat. Soon he was bedbound with a blazing fever, painful wrists, elbows and knees, and - most worrying of all - damage to his heart. He had been diagnosed with rheumatic fever, and his life was changed forever. Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory autoimmune disease, usually contracted in childhood. It starts with a sore throat; left untreated it can cause serious, life-long damage to the heart. Despite its status as a developed country, Aotearoa New Zealand has one of the highest rates of rheumatic fever in the world. More than 90 percent of the country's cases occur in Maori and Pasifika communities. (Scientific-Medicine/Historical)