4 March 2011

More than 15 million people around the world suffer from rheumatic heart disease, which is caused by a preventable disease afflicting the world’s poorest people.

Australian Professor Jonathan Carapetis from Menzies School of Health Research is addressing international health experts at a global health conference in Boston this week about the problem of rheumatic heart disease (RHD).

The conference “Tackling the Endemic Non-Communicable Disease of the Bottom Billion” is hosted by Harvard University, and is highlighting a group of neglected, but common, diseases that affect the poorest people in the world, including RHD.

“RHD mainly affects children, adolescents and young adults. It can be prevented using one of the oldest and cheapest antibiotics – penicillin,” Prof Carapetis said.

“The disease has practically been eliminated in wealthy countries and is declining fast in emerging economies but remains devastating among the poorest of the poor.

“This problem isn’t remote from Australia. Around 3 per cent of Indigenous adults in the Northern Territory suffer from RHD. The disease also poses a major health problem in the Pacific region.

“The funding required to bring it under control is minimal and in some cases successful control could be achieved by re-prioritising existing budgets.

“In the Pacific Islands, severe RHD patients have to be sent overseas for costly heart valve operations which places significant burden on the local government budget assigned to RHD.

However, it would be possible to run a coordinated control program for just a fraction of this cost.

According to the World Heart Foundation, rheumatic heart disease has become a marker of poverty and needlessly kills and disables people living in extreme poverty.

RHD is a chronic heart condition caused by rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever is a inflammatory disease caused by a strep infection.

Professor Jonathan Carapetis is the Director of Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin and a World Heart Federation expert on rheumatic heart disease.

The Long Tail of Global Health Equity: Tackling the Endemic Non-Communicable Disease of the Bottom Billion conference is being hosted by Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and was organised by Partners In Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard School of Public Health, the Global Taskforce on Expanding Access to Cancer Care & Control in Development Countries and the NCDAlliance.

RHDAustralia is funded by the Australian Government and is established under the Menzies School of Health Research in partnership with James Cook University and Baker IDI.

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Zoe Malone, Communications Manager
Ph: 08 8943 5081 | Mob: 0447 275 415 | zoe.malone@menzies.edu.au