More children have been diagnosed with heart diseases through various medical camps held by the Sai Prema Foundation in rural areas.

In the last three medical camps, two hundred children were screened and eleven were diagnosed with Rheumatic Heart Disease and Congenital Heart Disease.

Sai Prema Foundation Medical Coordinator, Dr. Krupali Tappoo says in some cases children do not show any signs of having these heart diseases.

“It is also interesting to note that some of the patients that we pick up during the screening are children who are not very symptomatic, they don’t have any symptoms so they may have congenital heart disease but they don’t really have any significant symptoms and parents may never end up taking this child to see a doctor because they seem ok, they act fairly normal or seem reasonably healthy”.

Dr Tappoo says there is a need for more screenings.

She says if cases are picked up early then children can be treated and they will be able to have a normal life span.

Praneeta Prakash