Timor-Leste has one of the world’s highest rates of rheumatic heart disease. However, the good news is that it’s not only treatable but preventable. Many people also suffer from congenital heart conditions.
We’re helping to tackle the root causes of poor heart health in Timor-Leste, by working to identify those at risk of rheumatic heart disease and providing them with early treatment.
As part of our early intervention preventative penicillin program, we support Maluk Timor who deliver regular antibiotic shots to young people with early symptoms, to stop their rheumatic heart disease from worsening
Our volunteer cardiologists support cardiologists at the National Hospital Cardiac Clinic to conduct heart screening and consultations with patients. We visit the clinic at least three times a year and see patients with a wide range of heart conditions. Cardiologists from the National Hospital can also consult with our volunteer cardiologists in Australia via telehealth to discuss patient cases and gain a second opinion.
Meet Dionezio
Dionezio dos Santos is 14, but unlike most teenage boys, he needs regular health care to keep his heart beating strong.
Without the crucial support of our rheumatic heart disease prevention program, Dionezio’s symptoms would worsen, his quality of life would deteriorate and eventually he would need life-saving surgery. To keep Dionezio healthy and smiling, he receives monthly penicillin injections. His family, the community and local health professionals receive education about the symptoms and causes of rheumatic heart disease.
“Before receiving penicillin Dionezio was breathless, had swollen legs and couldn’t go to school,” his mum Joaquinha Soares says. “Now he can play soccer and run and go to school.”
Dionezio has become a big advocate for healthy hearts. “I even organise all the other children to come and get their penicillin and tell them that they will feel healthy afterwards,” he says.
The rheumatic heart disease prevention and community awareness project runs in two districts in Timor-Leste and is conducted in close co-operation with the Ministry of Health and our local partner Maluk Timor. We hope this project can provide a good model for the Ministry of Health to expand its work nation-wide in the coming years.
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