Several cases of rheumatic heart diseases (RHD) and congenital heart diseases (CHD) have been detected within a span of one week.
This was revealed by visiting paediatric cardiologist from Sanjeevani Hospital Mumbai, India, Dr Sai Sujana Chitturi.
“This one week was from May 16 to 20 and we found a lot of RHD cases from the kids who came from Levuka,” Dr Chitturi said.
“Parents must remember that addressing heart diseases early, will allow their children to recover very well but if they address them late in their life span, their hearts are already accustomed to what it’s made of.
“This doesn’t help them get the best and right care that they need at the right age and sometimes their diagnosis gets delayed, then in most cases we can only offer medical management.”
She said so far over 250 children had been screened since May 16.
“The screenings will be an ongoing process as I will be here until mid-June. We are happy that parents are bringing in their children.
“Right now, we are doing screenings here at the medical centre but we are very much interested in going out to do outreach scans.”
Dr Chitturi said early detection and screening was important.
