ARCS register 610 children suffering from VDS this year

KABUL (Pajhwok): Over 600 children suffering from Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) also known as the ‘hole in the heart’ registered in the 10 months of ongoing solar year and introduced to hospitals for treatment, an official said on Wednesday.

The source said that 184 of these children had been recovered after treatment and returned to their families adding that still there was no case of fatality registered.

Erfanullah Sharfzoy, director Information Department of the Afghanistan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), said in the past the facility to treat children suffering from the VSD was not available in the country and these children were transferred to foreign countries for treatment.

He added currently the capacity of doctors in the country had increased and to some extent these children are provided the treatment in the country.

Sharafzoy said: “This solar year 610 children referred to hospitals, out of them 184 had recovered and handed over to their families, there was no fatality during the operation,” he added.

He said since 2008, the ARCS treated 13,000 children suffering from the VSD.

He said in the past children suffering from VSD were sent to China, India, Germany and Pakistan for treatment but this year only nine children had been transferred to Pakistan.

Dr. Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health, said currently a large number of children suffering from VSD were treated in the country but still there were no adequate facilities to provide treatment to all these patients.

He said the MoPH was striving to arrange complete facilities for the treatment of VSD patients inside the country.

VSD children patients are thrilled over the provision of health facilities for the treatment of their children.

Matiullah, the father of a VSD patient, said his child was treated inside the country by an Afghan doctor.

“My son is two and half year old and was suffering from VSD, he was referred to the French Maternity and Child Hospital by the ARCS and four days ago his operation was conducted and today we were discharged from the hospital,” he said.

But some patients still demanded the provision of VSD treatment inside the country.

Medicial doctors say that there were no clear reasons why children suffer from VDS but there were some genetic factors that contributed to this disease.

Dr. Mohammad Hanif Tasal, a trainer and specialized in general and child heart surgery, said: “Factors that make it possible for a child to be born with a hole in the heart are genetic factors that play a greater role, especially parents who were born with such diseases.”

In addition he said: “Also, environmental factors which are unknown factors and the use of some medicines, especially those used for nervous problems, lack of minerals, anemia and mother’s nutrition during pregnancy, all of these cause heart disease in children.”

Dr. Tasal stressed and added He said with emphasis that a mother who suffered from some infectious diseases during pregnancy or used some improper food spices during pregnancy, or has genetic factors, all of these factors may facilitate it the newborn child to be infected with VDS.

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