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50,000 Ethiopian Children Born Annually With Heart Disease
At least 50,000 Ethiopian children are born with congenital heart disease annually, local media reported Monday in Addis Ababa.
Ato Nega Kidan, executive member of the Children Heart Fund of Ethiopia (CHFE), said that medical service delivery at present in Ethiopia "is not in a position to provide proper medical treatment to children with heart disease," noting that the best alternative is to send these children to countries where such services are available.
The cost for heart operation per person is around 20,000 U.S. dollars, an expense neither the victims of families nor the government are able to afford, according to the reports.
Although the CHFE has established a fund to enable 100 children to get medical treatment in and outside Ethiopia, Kidan stressed efforts aimed at alleviating the high-rate of heart disease among children depend more on other organizations and individual donors.
With a birth rate of 2.98 percent, an estimated 6.8 per 1,000 live births are reported to be affected by congenital heart disease in Ethiopia.
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