Take Heart - Close the Gap Day 2025 - Special Edition Film

Summary

The film examines rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, presenting it as a preventable but persistent cause of serious illness and death among children and young people in Australia.

How RHD develops and affects the body

RHD is not present at birth. It can develop after repeated infections with streptococcus (“strep”), which may trigger an immune reaction that damages the body’s own tissues, especially the heart valves.

Early signs can include a sore throat, joint pain, fever, sweating, or unusual movements. Symptoms may be subtle and easily missed. Damaged valves can cause blood to leak backwards through the heart. Severe disease may lead to breathlessness, heart failure, stroke, or atrial fibrillation.

Heart surgery can repair a damaged valve, but it does not remove the risk of further damage after later strep infections. Ongoing monitoring and preventive treatment are therefore important.

Prevention, diagnosis, and care

• Regular injections of preventive antibiotics help reduce the risk of further rheumatic fever. The film describes monthly injections, sometimes continuing for many years.
• Some patients also need daily medication, regular blood tests, and repeated heart surgery.
• Echocardiography (heart ultrasound) can detect valve damage. The film features portable equipment used to bring heart checks into communities and homes, alongside health education.
• The Deadly Heart Trek, a remote-area outreach service, brings clinicians and local health teams to communities for skin checks, heart checks, education, and, where possible, treatment.
• The film also describes efforts to make clinic visits more accessible, including flexible appointments, coordinating services in one visit, and making clinics less frightening for children.

Inequity and community-led responses

The film links the high burden of RHD to overcrowded and inadequate housing, limited access to medical care, transport barriers, and the effects of colonization, discrimination, and racism.

It argues that health services must be designed with communities and delivered in ways that respect people’s connections to Country and their preferences about care. Examples include local Aboriginal health practitioners and workers conducting screening, community-based health education, and research into integrating echocardiography into routine care.

During one outreach visit, around 200 children were screened; 10—reported as 5%—were found to have previously undetected RHD.

The film reports that at least 100 young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people die from RHD each year, and describes deaths occurring as often as twice a week. It also says these figures may be underestimates.

Australia committed to eliminating RHD by 2031, but contributors argue that the country is not on track. They call for sustained government funding and coordinated, community-led programs.

Researchers and sources featured

Named health and community contributors

• Dr Ben Reeves — Paediatric cardiologist involved in care across Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait.
• Aon Ferguson — Clinical nurse consultant on the North Queensland RHD team.
• Emma Corpus — Aboriginal health practitioner involved in the portable echocardiography project.
• Dion — Narrator and former health worker who explains RHD and its effects.
• Cilia/Cecilia Johns — Health-promotion team leader involved in community health checks; the spelling of the name is unclear in the subtitles.

Other featured sources

The film also features children living with RHD and their parents, grandparents, and other family members, including families describing diagnosis, treatment, surgery, and loss. Other contributors include unnamed paediatric cardiologists, clinicians, nurses, Aboriginal health practitioners, midwives, and community health workers, as well as participants in the Deadly Heart Trek and the portable echocardiography implementation research project.