Rheumatic heart disease in New South Wales
At 31 December 2024, 147 people with RHD were recorded on the New South Wales register. This is unlikely to be representative of all Australians with RHD in New South Wales as RHD is notifiable only in those under 35 at the time of diagnosis. Of these:
- 35% (52 people) were First Nations people (Supplementary tables 4.1a and 4.1b)
- most non-Indigenous people with RHD were Pacific Islander people (55) (Supplementary table 4.4)
- 6.8% (10) were under 15 years old
- 56% (82) were female (Supplementary table 4.1b)
- the median age on the register at the end of 2024 was 23.8 years (Supplementary table 4.4)
- the prevalence of RHD increased over time likely due to greater case ascertainment through hospital record review (Supplementary tables 4.5a and 4.5b)
- there were 48 First Nations people living in NSW with a diagnosis of RHD and who had a current priority status recorded. Priority 1 was the most common priority status (Supplementary table 4.6).
New diagnoses of rheumatic heart disease in 2024
In New South Wales in 2024 there were 4 reports of new RHD diagnoses for First Nations people (Supplementary table 4.7b)
RHD diagnosis rates in NSW have remained steady between 2016 to 2024 around 0.1 to 0.5 cases per 100,000 population (Supplementary table 4.10b).
Rheumatic heart disease-related surgery in NSW
In New South Wales in 2024, 4 people underwent RHD surgical events. As such, there are too few cases to draw any meaningful statistical conclusions (Supplementary table 4.13).