NEWS

On a recent filming trip to Darwin and the Tiwi Islands we worked closely with Dr Bo Remenyi of NT Cardiac and Alice Mitchell of the Menzies School of Health Research to create a public service announcement for the indigenous community to Maningrida in the Northern Territory.

Regrettably the youngsters in the community have been hit hard in recent times with an outbreak of acute rheumatic fever.  This film was produced in less that a week to respond to the health emergency and carry important preventative health warnings.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT PRODUCTION

The short film features a voice over in the local language of Barada and includes original footage and animations created by Moonshine Movies for the impact documentary project Take Heart.

English language translation:

This is a health warning.

Right now, many of our children and young people in our community are getting rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.

This sickness is serious. This sickness can damage our heart.
Watch out for:

1. Painful joints (like ankle, knees, hip or elbow, wrist, shoulder) and
2. Fever (feeling cold and shivering but when you feel their forehead they feel very hot to touch).

Bring these children and young people to the clinic so we can give them medicine to stop this sickness and to prevent heart damage.
What causes rheumatic fever?

Rheumatic fever starts with a sore throat and sometimes with sores on our skin.

A germ called “strep” lives in the throat and on skin sores.
When you see pus in skin sores, it means that strep germs are camping there. They have found a good camping place to grow and multiply.

Or, if we have a sore throat, the same germ can live there.
These “strep” germs get inside our children’s body and damage their heart.

Medicine kill these strep germs and prevent heart damage.

For people who already have rheumatic fever, they need Penicillin needle every 3 or 4 weeks.

This medicine will stop them getting rheumatic fever again and prevents heart damage.

The medicine only stays in our body for 3 weeks.

It goes all around our body and protects us from the ‘strep’ germ.
After 3 weeks, the medicine is used up/finished.

Then we need to give another injection.

People with rheumatic fever need Penicillin in their body all the time to kill any strep germs and prevent heart damage.