ABORIGINAL children in Australia鈥檚 Northern Territory suffer from the highest incidence of acute rheumatic fever in the world. The children here are more than 1300 times more likely to develop the disease than those elsewhere in Australia and other developed countries. Rheumatic fever, a disease characterised by fever and inflamed joints, often leads to serious heart problems.
Research published in the latest issue of The Medical Journal of Australia shows that the rate of acute rheumatic fever among children aged from 5 to 14 years living in the Northern Territory鈥檚 rural communities is as high as 651 per 100 000.
