Treatment for children, suffering from cardiovascular diseases, is still inadequate in the country with the existing medical care largely centralized in the capital.
There are only 10 cardiac surgeons and 20 child cardiologists in the country with 10 in a thousand children being diagnosed with some form of heart condition.
According to a report by World Health Organization (WHO), 17.9 million people all over the world died of cardiac diseases in 2016.
In Bangladesh, twenty seven percent deaths reported are due to cardiac diseases among which10 percent are children.
People familiar with the issue said that many children are born with various kinds of heart conditions including congenital heart diseases or in layman terms born with a hole in their heart.
The treatment of these illnesses is completely Dhaka centered and even then not all the hospitals are equipped for it.
In 2007, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) hospital opened a separate unit for children born with heart conditions but it only has 15 beds.
On the other hand most of the parents of these children cannot afford the cost of the treatment. Currently BSMMU is providing assistance to 4,000 of these children with the Tk 80 million they received as donation.
A letter was sent to the prime minister’s office to build cardiology units in the divisional hospitals across the country. After that the ministry issued a letter to the principals and directors of the divisional hospitals and BSMMU instructing them to take the initiative.
“We are trying to give the best education to young doctors in order to give them an opportunity to become child cardiologists. We have also spoken to the military and Shishu hospital regarding this,” BSMMU Vice Chancellor Dr Kanak Kanti Barua told Bangla Tribune.
“The university is also aiming to build a separate institute,” he said, adding, “We will have a separate wing for child cardiology in our new hospital.”
BSMMU Cardiology Chair Dr Md Jahid Hosain told Bangla Tribune, “We treat cardiac condition in children in three ways- through medicine, without surgery and with surgery.”
He said that a cardiac catheterization lab or cath lab was opened in BSMMU in April of 2005. From then on angiograms for children are done there regularly and in 2009 the children’s cardiology ward was inaugurated.
In 2011, the echo machine was brought in and since then the hospital has been equipped with all the facilities to treat cardiac diseases including ECG, Doppler, 3-D and 4-D echo, Hosain said.
He added that they are now working on detecting cardiovascular diseases in babies while their mothers are expecting.
“Besides the angiogram the cardiologists are working on mending the hole in a child’s heart without surgery. They are also able to carry out procedures such as enlarging the valve with the help of a balloon, or to enlarge the arteries or valves when needed.”
There has been a Doctor of Medicine (MD) Pediatrics course at BSMMU since 2014 in order to increase the manpower but only 5 doctors have done this course so far, Hossain added.
Currently, cardiac treatment is available at BSMMU, Dhaka Shishu Hospital, BIRDEM and Army Hospital on a very small scale.
However, the treatment that the doctors provide in these hospitals is more suitable for older children and not newborns.
The scope to treat new born babies or operate on them is still not available in the country, said Hossain. He added that recently a team of surgeons, child cardiologists, anesthesiologists and nurses from Narayna University, India conducted a seminar to advise them on this topic.