Pharmacy Daily | Rheumatic worries

RATES of acute rheumatic fever among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians continue to be among the highest in the world based on the available data released in a report by the AIHW. The report uses data on the incidence of acute rheumatic fever and prevalence of rheumatic heart disease from the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australian Rheumatic Heart Disease registers. According to the paper almost all cases of acute rheumatic fever recorded in the NT between 2005 and 2010 were for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (98%), with 58% of cases occurring in 5-14 year olds. In addition, between 2007-08 and 2009-10, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had hospitalisation rates for acute rheumatic fever/rheumatic heart disease that were more than 6 times those of other Australians, whilst the death rate from the disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 5 times that of non-Indigenous Australians between 2004 and 2007.

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