{"id":2118,"date":"2019-08-15T14:34:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T05:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/?p=2118"},"modified":"2019-08-15T17:30:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T08:00:14","slug":"the-urgent-need-to-end-rheumatic-heart-disease-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/2019\/08\/15\/the-urgent-need-to-end-rheumatic-heart-disease-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"The urgent need to end rheumatic heart disease in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australia has among the highest recorded rates of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rhdaustralia.org.au\/burden-disease\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) and Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD)<\/a> in the world, and it is a significant cause of disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in rural or remote settings, particularly across central and northern Australia, are known to be at high risk.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent article in <a href=\"https:\/\/www1.racgp.org.au\/newsgp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">News GP<\/a> Dr Olivia O\u2019Donoghue, Medical Director <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flinders.edu.au\/medicine\/sites\/flinders-nt\/flinders-nt-regional-training-hub\/about-flinders-nt-regional-training-hub.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Flinders NT Regional Training Hub<\/a> and Patricia Turner, CEO of NACCHO spoke to Amanda Lyons about the urgent need to tackle high rates of ARF and RHD in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Dr O\u2019Donoghue who is also the Lead Aboriginal Health Training Medical Educator and Northern Territory Representative on the RACGP\u2019s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Council, spoke of the complications arising from ARF and the challenging, complex and painful treatments that are required. Dr O\u2019Donoghue sees the work undertaken by <a href=\"https:\/\/endrhd.org.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">END RHD<\/a> to create a vaccine against Strep A and its recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www1.racgp.org.au\/newsgp\/clinical\/millions-given-to-end-rheumatic-heart-disease\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">funding boost from the Federal Government<\/a> , as a positive step, although she would also like to see further research into ARF treatment options, as well. Because ARF and RHD have significant links to disadvantage, Dr O\u2019Donoghue believes their elimination will require a focus on the social as well as medical determinants of health \u2013 and that this needs to go beyond simple informational campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia Turner, believes it is imperative to act decisively on Australia&#8217;s high rates of ARF and RHD and wants to see practical, hands-on solutions for those who are currently suffering whilst addressing social determinants of health.<\/p>\n<p>You can read the full article \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www1.racgp.org.au\/newsgp\/professional\/this-should-not-be-the-norm-for-our-people-ending\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This should not be the norm for our people\u2019: Ending rheumatic heart disease in Australia by Amanda Lyons<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australia has among the highest recorded rates of Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) and Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) in the world, and it is a significant cause [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":2119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fnt-regional-training-hub"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/flinders-nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}