One-fifth of the 2.4 lakh children born with congenital heart disease (CHD) in India every year need early intervention to survive the first year of life, senior cardiologists said at a press meet organised in the city on the occasion of World Heart Day on Saturday.
The doctors said in the past one year, a team of paediatric cardiac specialists screened children across rural Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa and found that 1,400 of them were suffering from cardiac ailments. Over 33% of children were diagnosed with cardiac ailments and over 14.3% underwent surgery.
“CHD accounts for 28% of all birth defects. The incidence of CHD is around 8 to 12 cases per 1,000 live births. There are an estimated 2.5 crore children, adolescents and adults with untreated CHD in India. This poses a huge challenge and burden on patients, their families and society,” said Dr. Supratim Sen, senior consultant paediatric cardiologist, Narayana Health SRCC Children’s Hospital.
The hospital announced at the meeting that it will perform 200 cardiac surgeries per month for needy children under various government schemes from October. Dr. Soonu Udani, medical director of the hospital, said there are multiple factors that cause CHD to occur in children and genetics play a small part in it. Dr. Udani said the CHD occurs mostly in poor children owing to lack of access to healthcare and delayed diagnosis.
Dr. Pradeep Kaushik, senior consultant paediatric cardiologist, said only 35,000 of two lakh children in need of heart surgery end up receiving treatment in India each year. He said, “We get patients from various parts of Maharashtra, its neighbouring States and from northeast India. We have tie-ups with various State governments to help such children.”
Dr. Devi Shetty, chairman, Narayana Health, said even 15 years after the success of the Yeshasvini scheme, micro health insurance remains predominantly a southern and western Indian phenomenon. He, however, said with Ayushman Bharat, families and children from northern, central and eastern India will also now receive benefits.
