Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
PARENTS of children with congenital heart diseases have been encouraged to seek early diagnosis and treatment as this improves chances of survival for their children.
Dr Davidzo Murigo-Shumba, a specialist paediatric cardiologist at Mpilo Central Hospital who looks after children with heart problems said early diagnosis and treatment could save the life of children with heart diseases.
Although figures of children with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) in the country could not be made available in this year’s awareness week (7-14 February), Dr Murigo-Shumba said the condition was common in Zimbabwe and was treatable.
“CHD are diseases affecting the heart. This is when the heart is formed with a problem or when part of it is not formed properly. These diseases are quite common, and much more common than what we are seeing in our hospitals. For every 100 children born, one has a congenital heart disease and the majority of them can be treated if diagnosed in good time, at least 80 percent can be treated,” said Dr Murigo Shumba.
She said patients were able to later lead a normal adult life if diagnosed early but the challenge has been late presentation to hospital because parents may not be aware that their children have signs of CHD while some face financial constraints.
Dr Murigo-Shumba said during CHD awareness week, the aim was to raise awareness to the general population and healthcare workers about the condition saying imparting knowledge to everyone would assist people to be able to pick up these heart diseases in time.
“If a child is born and they have a bluish discolouration of their hands, feet or mouth that may be a sign. Parents must look out for this, if their nail bed, lips and tongue looks a bit darker than usual they must take the child to hospital. If a child is not growing well despite you feeding them as much as you can it is also another danger sign. Another potential problem is if a child is breathing fast, usually children breathe at a certain rate but if you compare your child to others and they are breathing faster, then it’s a reason to worry,” she said.
Other symptoms include excessive sweating even on a cold day or when they are sleeping or playing. For breastfeeding babies, they have difficulties in breathing while trying to suckle. For older children who are now able to walk, Dr Murigo-Shumba said they get tired easily if they run or walk and some start to swell on their bodies. She said the majority of CHD were treatable if diagnosed early as late diagnosis and failure to get treatment usually lead to complications.
“We have cadiothoracic surgeons who open up the chest and fix where the problem is in the heart. Another way is where pediatric cardiologists take the child to a special theatre called a cardiac catheterisation laboratory, this is where they fix the problem without opening the chest, we call it minimal invasive. The problem is fixed through some blood vessels. Currently in Zimbabwe we have open heart surgery which resumed sometime last year and the doctors managed to do some adult cases and our hope is that we get to do open heart surgery in paediatric cases and reach out to a large number of children who need help,” she said.
She added that for the less invasive procedure, their hope was that Zimbabwe gets a Catheterisation Lab, the special type of theatre so that they start helping children. Children with CHD in the country have been getting assistance from Italian doctors who have been screening patients from Mutoko’s All Saints Hospital. They have been able to help those children by offering free surgery in Italy.
“Those that cannot find help have to find help elsewhere and the majority have been going to India for surgery. Unfortunately, it is too expensive for a lot of people. Only a few manage to go through different kinds of assistance. Many are still waiting for assistance to get operations but the challenge is that if they wait for a long time they may develop complications and may not be operable. That is why we are hoping that we will be able to promote a programme that is run locally,” added Dr Murigo-Shumba.
She said doing operations locally would lower costs of treatment and offer better psycho-social support for parents of children with CHD.
“There is more emotional support in a familiar environment. Going to a different country with a sick child is difficult for the families, so besides the financial benefits of a locally available surgery, there are also the emotional benefits,” she added.
Dr Murigo-Shumba said plans were in motion to have some high tech pieces of equipment available in the country to assist in the treatment of CHD.
“There have been some plans to establish a Catheterisation Lab at Parirenyatwa Hospital. It is still something we are hoping will proceed so that we have that option to assist children locally. The advantages of that lab is that it is not only beneficial for paediatric cases but also for adults as they also develop coronary artery diseases,” she said.
Dr Murigo-Shumba said parents should look out for signs of CHD in their children and seek early treatment. She said they should not be scared when their children were diagnosed, saying some parents chicken out when a chance for an operation is made available and return when the child is now severely ill. @NyembeziMu
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu