By Ngumbao Kithi
Kilifi, Kenya: The Government will probe the high incidents of heart problems among children at the Coast.
The areas isolated as having many cases were Kilifi, Malindi, and Lamu.
Coast Provincial Director of Medical Services Khadija Shikelly said her office would work with the Paediatric Support Group to research on the prevalence of heart ailments among children.
“The revelation from the Paediatric Support Group is worrying. We want to know why children from Kilifi, Malindi, and Lamu are the most affected,” she said.
She said revelations that there were close to 150 children who underwent the free open-heart surgery come from Kilifi, Malindi, and Lamu was shocking.
“I have a whole department to handle the research on the heart problems and we will soon establish why the counties have more cases than the rest of Coast region,” she said.
A Paediatric Support Group official, Tanuja Walli, said the successful open-heart surgery was supported by local partners like the Voyager Hotel, Pollmans, and Brookside dairy.
Heart problems
A senior medical expert in Kilifi, Gikenyi Obonyo, said the plan to investigate the pervasiveness of heart problems in the three counties was timely, as it would lay the ground for adequate interventions.
In February, Medical and Education Aid to Kenya sponsored a free heart surgery at the coast.
The director of the UK-based organisation, Mike Belliere together with his team led by three doctors, Aaron Bell, David Anderson, and Dan Taylor conducted three open-heart surgeries per day.
Saha Mohamed Saha, a father of one of the children who underwent an open heart surgery praised the UK doctors for helping children from poor backgrounds. “When I was told my son had a heart problem, I thought he would die. These people have given us hope,” he said.
Belliere said his organisation helps about 50 children every year suffering from heart related ailments throughtout the world.
