Tanzania yesterday made a giant leap in modern medical
technology with the announcement of a high tech device to treat children
born with heart defects.
For the first time at Muhimbili National Hospital
(MNH), surgeons will be able to repair the heart defects of children
painlessly and with no blood loss.
Special single hand-guided devices costing about
Sh1.4 billion will heal the heart defects of about 50 children in a just
a week, and free of charge,in a project that aims to reduce the number
of patients being referred abroad for the treatment, especially to
India.
The ultra-modern surgery is the first of its kind
in Tanzania’s public health services and it means that those undergoing
the procedure will not have to be admitted in hospital for extended
periods as is the case with the traditional surgery.
Doctors in the team told The Citizen that the patients will leave hospital one or two days after surgery.
But the doctors performing the high tech
operations at Muhimbili’s new cardiac centre will not be local experts
just yet, according to the national hospital’s acting director, Dr
Hussein Kidanto. The centre is also grossly understaffed.
“The cardiac centre has all the equipment needed
to do whatever heart surgery needed,” said Dr Kidanto. “The big problem
is shortage of staff.”
In the meantime, Dr Kidanto told reporters, the
management has turned to foreign experts who, over the next four to six
months, will come to the country in groups to work with the hospital’s
small staff on complicated heart surgery and build local capacity.
The first group of foreign doctors from Saudi
Arabia got down to work yesterday. For the next nine days, they will
offer treatment for heart conditions in children using the most advanced
technology, thanks to a programme organised by the charity organisation
Little Hearts in collaboration with the Prince Sultan Cardiac Centre in
Riyadh.
There are ongoing efforts to reduce barriers in
accessing heart surgery in developing nations including Tanzania. This
has attracted several humanitarian projects in the form of two
patterns--taking the children abroad or inviting visiting surgical
teams. These are not long term solutions to the shortage, though.
Several new paediatric cardiac centres are
currently funded by non-governmental organisations in African countries
but cardiovascular diseases in developing countries are on the rise
because the centres are not permanently based in African countries.
Dr Sulender Kuboja, a paediatric cardiologist in
Dar es Salaam, argues that the cardiovascular ailments have been
prevalent in our local settings for many years but they are perceived to
have increased only because of advances in technology, with new devices
being able to diagnose themRead more
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