Lifestyle · Food & Health

Perth Declaration to Target Rheumatic Heart Disease as Funding Gap Looms

Public health experts in Perth will endorse a declaration to end rheumatic heart disease, as Australia faces criticism over a funding gap. Almost 12,000 people live with the condition, and First Nations people account for four in five cases.

By matthew jonathan

November 14, 20262 min read

Perth Declaration to Target Rheumatic Heart Disease as Funding Gap Looms

Public health experts meeting in Perth will endorse the "Perth Declaration" on November 15, 2026, a plan to eradicate rheumatic heart disease (RHD), and several say Australia appears willing to tolerate a preventable illness that hits First Nations people hardest.

The declaration says the world already knows how to prevent and treat the disease. What is missing, it says, is political will.

Australia has a national plan, the Endgame Strategy, to end RHD by 2031. Experts say only a small part of the required funding has been committed.

Funding gap

World Heart Federation head Jagat Narula told delegates at the global conference that Australia had committed only a small proportion of the $689 million the plan needs.

The federal government said it is investing $95.8 million to prevent and treat RHD. That funding was announced in 2021 and is to be spent over six years.

Assistant Indigenous Health Minister Rebecca White said in a statement that alternative PBS medicines had been made available during the ongoing shortage. She said the government was working with Aboriginal health services to supply eligible medications directly to patients.

Who is affected

Almost 12,000 people in Australia live with RHD or have a history of acute rheumatic fever (ARF). First Nations people account for four in five cases and die from RHD at more than five times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians.

The highest rates of ARF are among First Nations children aged 5 to 14.

RHD is permanent damage to a heart valve caused by one or more episodes of ARF. ARF arises from an untreated group A streptococcus infection. Both conditions are preventable.

The disease is closely linked to overcrowded housing and poor hygiene. Without clean water or washing machines, skin and throat infections spread quickly.

What the experts said

"[Australia's] health system is universal, well-funded and world-class, so the usual explanation, resources, is not available here," Narula said. "This is not a disease of poor countries, it is a disease of poor conditions."

He added: "Poor conditions can persist inside a rich country for as long as a society is willing to tolerate them."

Aunty Vicki Wade, an associate professor at Menzies School of Health Research, said some Indigenous communities live in "Third World conditions" for health, housing and education services. "This disease typifies Australia's failure to look after one of the oldest living cultures in the world," she said.

Garry Jennings, chief medical advisor at the Australian Heart Foundation, said ARF is easily treated with benzathine penicillin. "We need to get up into the communities, do better screening, better surveillance," he said.

A diagnosis without symptoms

Cecilia Johns learned she had RHD in 2019 while preparing for her first marathon. She had volunteered for a heart check-up after screening children at the health service where she worked.

She was 29, fit and healthy, with no symptoms. "I saw my own [heart] valve not working properly … and then heard the valve regurgitating," she said.