Introduction

This is the 8th annual report from the National Rheumatic Heart Disease data collection, collated from data provided by Rheumatic Heart Disease Registers in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. It presents information on people diagnosed or living with acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in 2024, as well as trend data since 2016. 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 5 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. Socioeconomic and environmental factors provide contextual information about some of the key factors associated with ARF and RHD in Australia.  
  2. 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.
  3. Acute rheumatic fever provides data on the incidence (new diagnoses) of ARF.
  4. Rheumatic heart disease provides data on the incidence and prevalence (existing cases) of RHD, and relevant surgical treatment.
  5. Secondary prophylaxis provides data on the delivery of secondary prophylaxis and ARF recurrence rates.

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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