The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ‘Congenital heart disease among children treatable’

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Saturday, Jun 20, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Congenital heart disease among children treatable’

Staff Reporter

Pre-natal care must be improved so that mothers, physicians can recognise early symptoms

HYDERABAD: One lakh children die of congenital heart disease every year though it is fully treatable, according to Mary Pawlenty, Director of Medical Diplomacy at Children’s Heartlink, a US-based NGO.

She was addressing the press on the occasion of Care Hospital’s collaboration with Nimmagadda Foundation to establish a paediatric cardiology centre in the hospital.

Ms. Pawlenty is here with a team headed by paediatrician Mohan Reddy, which is training doctors at the city’s Innova Children’s Heart Hospital to diagnose and cure heart diseases among children.

“Children’s Heartlink builds on existing programmes to create sustainable paediatric cardiac services. It is a huge challenge given the shortage of trained doctors in India but Andhra Pradesh is showing good signs,” she said.

She said pre-natal care must be improved so that mothers and physicians can recognise early symptoms of heart disease.

Difficult to predict

“It is difficult to predict before birth but there are certain symptoms like the baby being blue, failure to thrive and heavy breathing. Awareness is the only way to prevent acquired heart disease because rheumatic fever can damage the heart,” she said.

She praised the State government’s Arogyasri programme for providing funds and hoped that it would be implemented in other parts of the country.

“When I go back to the United States I will recommend that we open a Children’s Heartlink in India. This way we can grow and be effective here.”

Doctors from Care said the hospital had been training obstetricians and radiologists to detect the symptoms in foetal scans so the cases can be referred to a trained paediatric cardiologist at an early stage.

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