Introduction

This is the 6th annual report from the National Rheumatic Heart Disease data collection, collated from data provided by clinical patient registers in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. It presents information on acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) cases diagnosed or receiving treatment during 2022, as well as trend data since 2013. Its aim is to provide a national overview of ARF and RHD and so it focuses mainly on data for the combined jurisdictions.

The report is comprised of 6 parts:

  1. This introduction provides a background on what ARF and RHD are, and context for the data provided in the rest of the report.
  2. Acute rheumatic fever provides data on the incidence (new diagnoses) of ARF.
  3. Rheumatic heart disease, New rheumatic heart disease and Surgery among First Nations people with rheumatic heart disease provide data on the incidence and prevalence (existing cases) of RHD, and relevant surgical treatment.
  4. Secondary prophylaxis provides data on the delivery of secondary prophylaxis treatment and ARF recurrence rates.
  5. Management of acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease provides an overview of the number of people being managed for ARF and/or RHD by region, and describes the jurisdictional control programs and registers.
  6. Socioeconomic and environmental factors provides contextual information about some of the environmental factors associated with ARF and RHD in Australia.

At the end of the report additional information is provided about the data collection, some technical and analytical definitions, and relevant indicator sets. See Technical notes.

See the data tables on Data.

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