ARCS plans to offer surgery for heart defects

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) has launched a project to help children with congenital problems, particularly those with Congenital Heart Defect (CHD).

The project will offer surgery as a treatment option, according to a statement by the ARCS.

The ARCS claims to be the only humanitarian institution in the country providing “free CHD referral and treatment services,” and its statement said that ARCS will continue to “expand its resource network and tie up with hospitals inside and outside the country.”

According to the statement, the ARCS is seeking funds for equipment over the next three years, so it can run its own CHD Hospital in Kabul as the only organization providing surgical treatment to the CHD-affected population in the country, the statement said.

According to an official involved in the project, over 10,000 children have been treated and more than 4,000 children are in line for operation.

The ARCS CHD Hospital will be equipped with “modern surgical treatment facilities” and “staffed by competent local hospital workers who “will provide the best quality surgical CHD care.”

The running of ARCS CHD Complex hospital will save the financial resources of ARCS, which currently refers CHD patients outside the country for surgical treatment, the statement said.

Patients who are confirmed CHD cases and require surgery (determined by echocardiography by hospitals in the country), particularly those coming from low-income families in the 34 provinces, will be the project’s direct beneficiaries, according to the statement.

In October 2019, 61 Afghan children with congenital heart disease (CHD) were sent to China’s Xinjiang province to receive free treatment.

It was the second phase of a project sponsored by the B&R Fraternity Fund, which aims to help a total of 150 children with heart disease in Afghanistan.

The newly-arrived children will be treated in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University.

24 children in July 2019 received treatment in Xinjiang and returned to Afghanistan on August 14.

The project has already treated 100 Afghan children from August 2017 to October 2018 during the first phase.

According to the Afghan Red Crescent Society, the lake of specialized hospital services for cardiac patients, especially patients affected by congenital heart defect (CHD), has caused ARCS to respond to treatment of this affected population.

Based on the ARCS statistics, the increased number of CHD patients and the limitation of hospitals providing CHD services to ARCS patients has increased the waiting time, and the mortality rate of children affected with CHD during waiting time is as high as 10-15%.(TOLOnews)