Half of the cases diagnosed were in the Northern Territory.

The number and rate of diagnoses of acute rheumatic heart fever doubled in the four years to 2017, according to a study released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Rheumatic heart disease is a permanent form of heart damage, caused by exposure to strep A infection and usually begins with a sore throat or skin infection. If not treated with antibiotics, some young people will go on to develop acute rheumatic fever and then rheumatic heart disease.

Those most at risk of developing the disease are young Indigenous Australians aged five to 15. The average life expectancy of an Indigenous person diagnosed with it is 40.

In the four years to 2017 there were more than 1800 diagnoses of acute rheumatic fever recorded, and just over 1700 of those were Aboriginal people.

Nine in 10 of those were children – predominantly girls – aged between and five and 14, the study found. More than half of all cases were in the Northern Territory.

Experts say the figures do not necessarily reflect an increase in the incidence of the disease but could reflect better detection.

“But these numbers show us we have got a lot of 
work to do in primary health care delivery as well 
as treatment,” said Katharine Noonan from END 
RHD – the peak organisation representing researchers and medical organisations working in the field.