Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in Australia

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to compile and maintain the National Rheumatic Heart Disease data collection, and to analyse and report annually on these data.

COVID-19 impacted both the health sector and the utilisation of health services in 2020, 2021 and 2022. This could have affected results such as diagnosis rates, benzathine benzylpenicillin G (BPG) delivery and the number of surgeries undertaken. Further information on how the pandemic affected acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) specifically is not available.

Important notes when reading this report

The numbers in this report may not match those in previous reports.

Data in the collection are updated over time as the jurisdictional programs clean and improve their data or receive historical information.

Service providers may not be ready to submit the data although the services have been provided in the reporting period. These data will be added in future reports when they become available. Therefore, comparisons to the results in previous versions of the report is discouraged.

All statistical information for previous years has been updated as trend data in this report. Changes between years are presented in the trend analysis in each section of the report. 

New ARF and RHD data from Victoria

ARF and RHD became notifiable in Victoria in the middle of 2023. It is notifiable for all ages and notifications include both newly diagnosed and existing cases. Because a register has not yet been established, Victoria’s current notifiable disease database has been adapted to record necessary information, but most of the information required by this report is not currently available. Because of this, data from Victoria are included in the Management of acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease chapter only.

Terminology used to refer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this report

The AIHW recognises the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures across Australia. In this report, the term 'First Nations people' is used to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

About the data in this report

Most of the data used in this report are from the National RHD data collection. This data collection is compiled and managed by the AIHW by collating data from the ARF and RHD registers in the 5 jurisdictions and removing any duplications.

Throughout this report, some data from New South Wales will be incorporated with numbers from other jurisdictions and some will remain separate, depending on comparability between the jurisdictions. ARF (all ages) and RHD (in persons under the age of 35 at diagnosis) became notifiable in NSW in October 2015. The register was established in May 2016. For secondary prophylaxis and surgery, the register only contains data from patients who consent to their information being recorded on the register. People 35 years and older at RHD diagnosis and people previously diagnosed outside New South Wales may be included on the register at the discretion of their health practitioner. Although people who were under 35 at the time of RHD diagnosis remain on the register even after turning 35, they are not included in this report as they are unlikely to be representative of people aged 35 and over with RHD in New South Wales.

Because Victoria’s current notifiable disease database does not include most of the information required by this report, data from Victoria are included in the Management of acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease chapter only.