It’s been nearly a month since Australia was struck by a national shortage of the medicine used to treat rheumatic heart disease. In the Northern Territory, rheumatic heart disease rates are among the highest in the world, disproportionately affecting remote Indigenous communities. Now, clinicians are calling for immediate action to address the drug shortage, saying it not only harms patients directly but undoes the work of health initiatives which have been working on combatting the disease for decades.
