DR YADETA – CARDIOLOGIST AND PROFESSOR IN ETHIOPIA – ANNOUNCED AS WINNER OF THE RHEUMATIC HEART DISEASE SURVEY PRIZE DRAWDr Dejuma Yadeta, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at Addis Ababa University, sees about 30 patients a week with rheumatic heart disease (RHD). He was one of 43 respondents to a computerized survey on RHD piloted at the World Congress of Cardiology (WCC) and was announced as the randomly-selected winner of a free registration to the next WCC, taking place in Dubai from 18–21 April 2012. World Heart Federation surveys congress participantsAt the 2010 World Congress of Cardiology, Dr Yadeta completed a survey on the subject of RHD. The survey was designed by David Watkins, who is currently completing his training in internal medicine at the University of Washington. “I discovered RHD as a medical student working in Cape Town, and have been committed to doing something about it ever since. We wanted to learn about attitudes toward and experience with RHD, and also draw attention to this terribly neglected disease,” he explains. Respondents to the survey were physicians from around the world and about 80% were cardiologists. Most respondents had access to echocardiography in their clinics, but some referred patients for echocardiography, and two (from Africa) had no access to echocardiography in their practice. Nearly four in 10 respondents knew of no national or provincial guidelines on rheumatic fever/RHD prevention or treatment. Of those who took the survey, nearly all identified a lack of funding and human resources as the most common barriers to solving the problems they faced with RHD. Free entry to the 2012 World Congress of CardiologySurvey respondents entered a draw for free entry to the 2012 World Congress of Cardiology, in Dubai. Dr Yadeta won the free entry, and is looking forward to the congress. More importantly, he has been added to the global network of health professionals brought together through the World Heart Federation’s RHDnet and its activities in RHD. “I have used RHDnet for training and the materials available are very helpful,” he reports, “but I did not know about the other activities such as those of the ASAP network in Africa.” Most common cardiac diagnosisDr Yadeta works in the adult cardiovascular clinic at the Tikur Anbesa Hospital, the main university referral hospital in Ethiopia, and RHD is the most common cardiac diagnosis he sees. “More than half of the cardiac patients we see have RHD. They come in their teens or early twenties, we follow them for 10–15 years, and then they usually die in their thirties. We also see pregnant women come in for their first labour with severe valvular disease. Sometimes they die while giving birth.” Barriers to RHD controlOnce they are diagnosed with acute RHD, clinics give patients Benzathine Penicillin G injections that check progression of the disease (secondary prophylaxis). “People here believe injections work, so patient compliance with secondary prophylaxis is not a big problem. However, we do not have enough health workers to deliver these services countrywide. A missionary surgical team may come twice a year for valve repairs, but many patients remain untreated. Post-operative follow-up requires monitoring that is not available in most parts of the country. We pick our surgical patients carefully, to ensure they can benefit from the surgery. In some ways it is harder on the health professionals who provide care than it is for the patients themselves – psychologically, at least. The patients think their pain and loss is inevitable, but we know that it is not. We know what could be done.” If you work with RHD your feedback is invaluable to us, even though the prize draw is now closed please share your experiences and pass the link on to your colleagues. | |||||||
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