SUVA, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- About 200 babies in the South Pacific island nation of Fiji are diagnosed with congenital heart disease every year.
According to Fijivillage website on Saturday, this was revealed in the week-long Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week which was organized by the Sai Prema Foundation and started in the Fijian capital Suva on Saturday.
It is reported that Congenital heart defects affect about one in every 100 babies born, and in Fiji this equates to about 200 babies being born every year with congenital heart disease.
In the South Pacific region, about 2,500 babies have congenital heart disease every year.
Congenital heart defect or disease refers to an abnormality of the heart which is present at birth and up to 20 percent of heart defects are gene-linked abnormalities but for the remaining 80 percent, the cause is largely unknown, according to Director of Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Medical Center Krupali Rathod Tappoo.
Some contributing factors of the disease include smoking in pregnancy, the mothers' diet, history of diabetes in pregnancy or being overweight as well as medications used in pregnancy, she added.
Currently, Fiji does not have a local Pediatric Cardiac Unit and there are a few visiting teams that travel to the island nation to operate free of cost on children with congenital heart disease, she said.
In last April, the South Pacific nation's first children's heart screening center was opened at the Sanjeevani Medical Center in Suva to screen children for congenital heart disease.
From June to December last year, a total of 460 patients have been screened at this children's heart screening center and 40 cases of congenital heart disease were diagnosed. It is about 8.6 percent of the children screened and shows that the detection rates in the screened children were higher than what is expected or the known local statistics.
Over the past three years, the Sai Prema Foundation Fiji has also facilitated a visiting international pediatric cardiac team which has performed 71 free surgeries for children with congenital heart disease, saving poor and under-privileged families in excess of seven million Fijian dollars (about 3.19 million U.S. dollars).
The foundation is currently building the South Pacific's first-ever children's heart hospital which will provide free surgeries for children with congenital heart disease in Fiji and other countries in the South Pacific. The hospital will be opened in April this year.
