Oceania has the world's highest risk of rheumatic heart disease

A newly released study finds that people living in the Oceania region, including Australia, have the highest risk in the world of having and dying from rheumatic heart disease (RHD) — a disease caused by a bacterial infection of the throat and skin which, without treatment with antibiotics, can result in heart failure and other complications, including stroke.

Published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the study reports that Oceania, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa have the highest prevalence and mortality rates from the disease and have seen the lowest reductions globally over the past 25 years. And while global RHD burden has decreased since 1990, most of this benefit has occurred in countries that have undergone economic development, while the world’s poorest populations have not been so lucky.

Here in Australia, one in 43 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote and rural areas has RHD. As noted by Professor Jonathan Carapetis, director of the Telethon Kids Institute and a co-author on the study, the condition causes “the largest disparity in cardiovascular disease outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations and one of the greatest disparities of all diseases”.

“Rheumatic heart disease is a preventable yet devastating condition,” said Professor Carapetis. “This paper proves that this is a disease usually seen only in developing countries. It is appalling that it is still a problem in Australia.

“If we are trying to Close the Gap, RHD has to be a priority. If there is one country that should be able to eliminate this disease, it is Australia, and there needs to be a national commitment to end the condition.”