Develop an anti-inflammatory medication

Healthcare professionals don’t have an effective treatment to reduce inflammation of the heart in a child with acute rheumatic fever. Assoc Prof Wilson’s team is testing a medicine called hydroxychloroquine, which has been shown in the laboratory to reduce inflammation in blood from patients who have acute rheumatic fever. This is a proof-of-concept trial of whether hydroxychloroquine can safely reduce inflammation by treating up to 30 Auckland children who are in hospital with acute rheumatic fever.

Assoc Prof Wilson has a grant from the Health Research Council to follow this study with a larger clinical trial which will measure the effect of treatment with hydroxychloroquine on long-term heart damage, known as rheumatic heart disease.