Miss Palmer, of Pipiwai, was diagnosed last year with rheumatic fever. She said after having an "extremely sore throat" she went to get it swabbed but she did not receive a call back letting her know it was strep throat.
"I broke out in a rash all over and it was really itchy. My partner told me I should go to the hospital. I did and I didn't come out [for two weeks]," she said.
Miss Palmer now has to get penicillin injections every 28 days for 10 years and said she was now unable to play sports.
"I used to play rugby and basketball. I can't now because if I get bumped I'll swell up," she said.
She was now "overly conscious" when her kids, and the kids she teaches at kohanga, have sore throats. "If they've got a sore throat I say to their parents, 'Hey go get their throat checked now. It's not worth waiting'," she said.
Dr Tuck said rheumatic fever was a disease of social deprivation. "This is not a disease of race. It is a disease of overcrowding and poor living conditions. If we all lived in the same conditions, we'd have the same chance of getting rheumatic fever."
While initiatives like the sore throat programme in schools and free GP visits for under-13s were "genuinely really great" he said they didn't get to the root of the problem. "They're the fence at the top of the cliff," he said "We in the health system are very good at diagnosing and preventing further episodes.
"We're really good at treating the heart disease. But we have no impact on the primordial causes of this disease. These circumstances [overcrowding, social deprivation] in which our whanau live result in poorer health," he said.
NDHB has a Rheumatic Fever Prevention Plan to try to combat those numbers that includes partnerships with iwi, advertising, and programmes in schools. Manaia PHO will soon implement a health and housing programme aimed at whanau with high increased risk of rheumatic fever.