Over the holiday season, a special gift arrived at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital Rheumatic Heart Disease Control Programme.
The second of two portable echocardiography machines arrived care of the FIJI Water Foundation.

Valued at about $50,000, the machine will be used at schools throughout Fiji by specially trained doctors and nurses to detect early signs of rheumatic heart disease.

The machine is sturdy, easily transportable, and if necessary can be powered by a car battery –– just what is needed to reach out to Fiji’s rural areas.

In November, last year a team lead by Dr Joseph Kado of Colonial War Memorial and Dr Monika Brook of Lautoka Hospital screened school-aged children at Rabulu Indian School, Drauniivi Primary, Naseyani Primary, and Vatukaloko Junior Secondary schools.

Of the 575 children screened, 30 children were identified with early signs of rheumatic heart disease, the youngest aged 6.

With proper treatment, however, these children should be able to lead long lives without the intervention of major surgery.

“Rheumatic heart disease is the most common heart disease in children and young adults globally,” Dr Kado said.

“Recent data from Tonga and Fiji suggest that the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in school-aged children is the highest recorded prevalence in the world and translates to 40,000 children affected in the Pacific,” he said.

Rheumatic heart disease is caused by rheumatic fever –– it may begin as a simple bacterial infection with symptoms such as severe sore throat, fever sores, and tender joints which, if untreated, can develop into rheumatic fever and cause serious damage to the heart.

The disease is most common in communities where people live in close proximity with poor sanitation.

The annual cost of a control and prevention programme Fiji-wide is equivalent to the cost of 1-3 surgery operations per year.

Unfortunately, while preventative treatment is now readily available in Fiji, detection around the country is still inadequate and many sick children are flying under the radar.

Another 500 children in the Suva area will be screened during the pilot training phase next month, and the programme aims to screen another 1000 children in the Northern and Western Divisions by the end of 2010.

The Fiji Water Foundation is proud to support the important work of this health program, dedicated to improving awareness and early identification of preventable heart defects in children and young adults. With support for this type of research and an aggressive prevention programme, Fiji will reduce the need for overseas heart surgeries for its children, opening up funding to be available for other health programmes, and improving Fiji’s health.