16,000 babies born in Uganda annually have heart diseases – UHI

By Stephen Kalema

Of the 1.6 million babies born in Uganda in a year, 16,000 suffer from heart diseases, the executive director of Uganda Heart Institute (UHI) has revealed. Half of the affected babies- 8,000 – need a quick heart diagnosis while 2,000 babies are severely in need of operations.

Dr. Richard Omangino warned that the number is expected to increase as the population grows.

“With the population growth of 3.03, this is just the beginning of heart related-diseases in children since factors contributing to this problem are still in place, yet funds to treat them are not enough,” Dr Omangino told Watchdog.

According to Dr Omangino, most children with high risks of heart diseases are those born to mothers aged 13 years to 17 years and mothers of aged 35 to 50 years.

“Due to high levels of teenage pregnancies especially in the hard to reach areas in Uganda, we expect these figures to increase. This problem is high and we need to work upon this,” Dr Omangino said, before advising that patients no longer need to go abroad for heart surgeries.

“Heart surgery at UHI will cost Shs20m whereas abroad, in say India, it will cost at most Shs80m. We have the capacity both technology-wise and the human resource to treat 85 per cent of heart diseases in children and 90 per cent in adults.”

However, he noted that funding was not enough.

Over Shs266b is needed to set up a standard hospital which will accommodate both adults and children suffering heart related diseases.

“We can do better with such a facility and the economy will in one way be boosted; research will be possible as well as raising employment opportunities for Ugandans. Currently our facility can only handle 1,000 children. This means there is a strong need for another facility,” added Omangino.

Uganda, he said, losses over Shs76.2bn abroad to medical tourism specifically for heart related diseases and Shs266bn for other general medical treatment.