ADVOCACY: At the RHD Heart of Housing
Rheumatic Heart Disease – A Preventable Killer Linked to Housing
Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is one of the leading causes of early death for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote Australia. It’s a chronic condition that damages the heart valves, often beginning in childhood and it is 100% preventable.
What is RHD?
RHD starts with a common bacterial infection—Group A Streptococcus (Strep A)—which can cause sore throats (strep throat) and skin sores. In healthy environments, these are easily treated and rarely progress to any worse health issue. But, when infections are repeated or left untreated, the immune system can attack the body’s own heart tissue, leading to Rheumatic Fever and, over time, permanent heart damage.
It’s a disease often linked to poverty and crowding.
Why does it still exist?
RHD has disappeared from most wealthy countries. But in remote Aboriginal communities, rates are among the highest in the world. Why?
Because in many homes:
- There’s no working shower or tap to keep skin clean
- People are sleeping in crowded rooms, where infections spread fast
- Skin sores and sore throats go untreated due to poor or inconsistent access to health services
It’s not complicated. If you can’t wash a child’s face, clean a wound, or isolate someone who’s sick, infections will thrive.
How does heat make it worse?
Extreme heat is part of life in the Central Desert and across much of remote Australia. It doesn’t cause RHD directly, but it adds enormous stress to both the conditions that cause RHD and to those already living with it.
In hot weather:
- People sweat more, increasing the risk of skin infections if they can’t wash regularly
- Crowded houses become unbearable, making sleep and recovery difficult, where often people crowd in to rooms that have working airconditioners
For those with RHD, the added strain of heat on a damaged heart can be life-threatening
In short: the hotter it gets, the harder it is to stay clean, stay well, and stay alive—especially when housing doesn’t support basic health.
What prevents RHD?
We can stop RHD before it starts by breaking the chain of infection. That means:
Working health hardware – Taps, showers, toilets, and laundry facilities.
- Nationally from Healthabitat’s data we know that before a Housing for Health in a community, only 39% of showers are functional, and only 29% of washing have a functional washing machine.
Less crowding – More functional houses and living environments.
- While new houses are good and needed, there are approximately 5,500 existing remote houses in the NT alone which require and will continue to require ongoing maintenance to function.
- Access to treatment – Early antibiotics for sore throats and skin sores prevent RHD altogether.
Fixing housing is not a silver bullet—but without it, medical treatment is just a band-aid.
Why does this matter?
Children are still dying from RHD in a Australia. A preventable disease, associated with low or middle income countries. In some regions of the NT and WA, 1 in 20 kids have RHD or early signs of heart damage.
Fixing houses also helps a struggling health system..
Further Reading
– https://rhdaustralia.org.au/
– https://www.housingforhealth.com/
– https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/rheumatic-heart-disease
