Acute rheumatic fever
This section presents diagnoses of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) reported by Australian rheumatic heart disease (RHD) control programs until 2022. A person may have multiple diagnoses of ARF in their lifetime, so the number of diagnoses can be greater than the number of people affected. In this section of the report, cases are allocated to a jurisdiction and region based on where they were diagnosed.
The total number of ARF diagnoses recorded depends on the reporting practices of the various RHD registers. It is likely that ARF diagnoses are under-reported to RHD registers in all jurisdictions. A report from Agenson and others (2020) suggests that many cases of patients who attend the hospital for ARF or RHD are not reported to the jurisdictional registers.
Agenson T, Katzenellenbogen JM, Seth R, Dempsey K, Anderson M, Wade V, and Bond-Smith S (2020) 'Case ascertainment on Australian registers for acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17:5505, doi:10.3390/ijerph17155505.