Australia could be on the home stretch to ending rheumatic heart disease with a grant of $35 million from the Federal Government to develop a vaccine against Group A streptococcus.

The funding to fast-track a vaccine was announced earlier this week by the Minister for Indigenous Health, Ken Wyatt, who described it as a “game-changing step”.

In Australia, rheumatic heart disease disproportionately affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, who are 64 times more likely to develop it than non-Indigenous people — and 20 times as likely to die from it.

The $35 million over the next three years will help a team of rheumatic heart disease experts, spearheaded by the Telethon Kids Institute, to accelerate one of four existing Strep A vaccine candidates into a clinical trial.