THE simple act of buying a $2 token at Woolworths stores will help identify and treat children in remote communities with Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD).
The Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation has partnered with the Children’s Hospital Foundation and Woolworths to help bring a special outreach program to life in the Far North.
Foundation CEO Tony Williamson said he encouraged everyone, in the last days of the Woolworths Easter Token campaign, to spend up big on the tokens.
“We’ll use these funds to make a difference to sick kids through this outreach program, which will have far-reaching positive impacts for the rest of their lives,” Mr Williamson said. “It really is a privilege to help sick kids,” he said.
Cairns Hospital paediatric cardiologist Dr Ben Reeves is part of a Deadly Heart Trek and will undertake a special tour of remote communities to find and start treating children with rheumatic fever.
“What we’re trying to do is catch the disease early, prevent progression to severe damage and save a few children from having bad hearts in the future,” Dr Reeves said.
“We’re trying to find children with hidden RHD, which is a disease that affects the valves of the heart. These are children who don’t know they have disease. We plan to travel to remote communities using equipment supplied by the Foundation in the past and find these children, start them on treatment that will prevent them from dying prematurely or having bad cardiac symptoms and get them enrolled in regular follow up and hopefully change their lives,” he said.
“RHD is a preventable illness. It starts off as an infection – a sore throat or skin sores then gets into the blood stream and causes an immune response that damages the heart. Usually this is over time with repeated infections. But we can stop that infection and it’s as easy as giving an injection of penicillin.
“People with RHD tend to get worse over time. The first instance is in childhood. It can lead to valve leakage, blockage, heart failure and early death. I’m collaborating with other cardiologists, specialist nurses and we’re trying to see as many children as we can in remote places because that’s where this disease exists.
RHD in Australia is pretty bad. We still have an element of the community which has a high prevalence of RHD. In Cairns and Cape and Torres, the rates are amongst the highest in the world. If they come to us with symptoms of heart disease we’re playing catchup, they have to valve surgeries and the children are never the same. So the idea here is we catch the disease early, prevent progression to severe damage and save a few children from having bad hearts in the future,” Dr Reeves said.
So far more than $20, 000 has been raised through Woolworths stores in Far North Queensland, which the FNQHF will use towards Dr Reeves special outreach program.
