Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is a preventable childhood illness that kills two young Australians each week. First Nations children are 60x more likely to be impacted.
RHD has the greatest negative impact on the gap in life-expectancy between First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians – elimination of RHD is critical to achieving health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and closing the gap.
Since 2019, ANTAR has worked closely with the Take Heart and Close the Gap campaigns to help raise public awareness about RHD and elevate RHD elimination as a policy priority amongst all major parties and elected representatives.
During this time, we have seen huge improvements in the general awareness of RHD, alongside the establishment of dozens of community-led programs offering hope for the future.
To support National Close the Gap Day 2025, the Take Heart campaign has released a brand new 30 minute film which is available for the public to watch from the week leading up to Close the Gap Day on Thursday, 20 March 2025.
This new short film provides a great opportunity to gather in your community, workplace, school or home on Close the Gap Day and take action with us to help end RHD.
