The Top End of Australia records some of the highest rates of Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) in the world. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples live with RHD at rates 60 times higher than non-Indigenous Australians.

RHD is an entirely preventable disease that usually occurs in children aged 5 - 15 and starts as a Step A infection to the throat or skin. Risk factors include poverty, overcrowded living conditions and reduced access to medical care.

It’s estimated that two young Australians are lost to RHD every week but with the right programs in place, we can eliminate the disease this decade and keep Aboriginal families strong and together.

RHD prevention must happen by local people at the local level. Teaching local Indigenous health workers how to perform echocardiography screening so that they can check up on children’s hearts has been a total game changer in many communities.

Anne-Marie Lee is a health worker living in Barunga, a small Aboriginal community located approximately 80 kilometres southeast of Katherine, in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Anne Marie educates children, their families and the entire community about Rheumatic Heart Disease and how to prevent infection. She was one of the first local health workers to be taught to use the echocardiography screening machines.

In this short film, Anne-Marie discusses why it’s so important to have local health professionals working in the community clinics. She is a huge advocate for RHD prevention in Barrunga but also in other communities across the Top End of Australia

Anne-Marie has been actively involved in creating resources and translating them into the local language

She also makes sure that those in her community living with RHD keep on top of their treatment and receive their monthly penicillin injections, so as to avoid cardiac surgery.

No child in Australia should undergo open heart surgery or die prematurely from Rheumatic Heart Disease

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