RHD Action

• International
• English
• Communities

Nurturing Children: RHD in the Pacific Islands

Reducing preventable disease burden and mortality from rheumatic heart disease in the Pacific Islands.

A policy brief prepared by World Heart Federation, RhEACH, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Pacific Rheumatic Heart Disease Control Programme.

• Australia
• English
• Communities

ʺIf left untreated, recurrent episodes of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) lead to rheumatic heart disease (RHD), which in turn causes long term damage to the heart valves requiring major surgery. Although all but forgotten in the wider Australian community, this disease is more than eight times more likely to affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples than non-Indigenous Australians.ʺ
 

• Tonga
• English
• Communities

Profile: Toakase Fakakovikaetau: pioneering paediatrician in Tonga

• Nepal
• English
• Communities

Have a heart, save a heart.

Nepalese youths in fight against rheumatic heart disease.

Proceeding of "Have a heart, save a heart" project.

• Uganda
• English
• Communities

• Fiji
• Fijian
• Communities

Each year, more than 60 Fijians die as a result of Rheumatic Heart Disease – and it all starts with an untreated sore throat. Information for parents and caregivers (in English and Fijian)

• United States of America
• English
• Communities

Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) kills more than 250,000 people every year--most live in low-resource regions. This animation describes the three steps by which strep throat can lead to RHD. It also shows how RHD can be entirely prevented--by treating strep throat.

• Ethiopia
• English
• Clinician - community health worker

A learning module for laboratory technicians is available online as part of a larger project publication from Ethiopia.

• Australia
• English
• Clinician - community health worker

A video made by RHD Australia and the Queensland Rheumatic Heart Disease Control Program detailing relevant aspects of bicillin injections.

• English

A report written by Dr Liesl Zuhlke on some of the statistics of this preventable disease in developing countries.

• South Africa
• English
• People living with RF/RHD

The Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa provide a summary of rheumatic heart disease in order to increase awareness in developing countries.

• United States of America
• English
• Communities

• Rwanda
• English
• Communities

Open Heart is the story of eight Rwandan children who leave their families behind and embark on a life-or-death journey to receive high-risk open-heart surgery in Africa’s only free-of-charge, state-of-the-art cardiac hospital, the Salam Center run by Emergency, an Italian NGO. Their heart valves, damaged and weakened by rheumatic heart disease, which develops from untreated childhood strep throat, leave them lethargic and weak. Some of the children have only months to live.

• International
• English
• People living with RF/RHD

This disease is a rare after-effect of the bacterial throat infection commonly known as "strep throat" (streptococcal pharyngitis). It occurs in patients that are not treated with antibiotics or are only partially treated with antibiotics for their throat infection. Strep throat is caused by the bacteria known as Group A streptococcus.

• Australia
• English
• Clinician - community health worker

This module includes an introduction to the principles of screening as applied to RHD. This includes suitability for screening, reliability of the screening method, effectiveness of treatment and the cost of finding cases.