Saxena Anita
Future Cardiol. 2014 May;10(3):359-66. doi: 10.2217/fca.14.16.
Most of the children born with congenital heart disease are expected to lead normal, productive lives if treated in time. However, the privilege of early diagnosis and timely intervention is restricted to children born in developed countries. India has one of the highest birth rates in the world and, considering that the prevalence of congenital heart disease does not vary in different regions, a large number of babies with congenital heart disease are born in India every year. It is estimated that approximately 80,000 newborns with heart disease need early intervention to survive their first birthday. Less than 10% of these actually undergo intervention. Providing optimal care for all these children is a daunting task, and requires funds and proper planning at various levels of the healthcare system. Currently, India only has 22 cardiac centers for children with heart diseases and only three of these are funded by the government. This article describes the magnitude of the problem, lacunae in the current state, and challenges and opportunities for providing care to this large population of children.
大多数先天性心脏病患儿若能及时接受治疗，有望过上正常且有意义的生活。然而，早期诊断和及时干预的优势仅限于出生在发达国家的儿童。印度是世界上出生率最高的国家之一，鉴于先天性心脏病的患病率在不同地区并无差异，印度每年都有大量患有先天性心脏病的婴儿出生。据估计，约8万名患有心脏病的新生儿需要早期干预才能活到一岁生日。而其中实际接受干预的不到10%。为所有这些儿童提供最佳护理是一项艰巨的任务，需要医疗保健系统各级的资金和妥善规划。目前，印度仅有22个针对患有心脏病儿童的心脏中心，其中只有三个由政府资助。本文描述了该问题的严重程度、当前状况的不足，以及为如此大量儿童提供护理所面临的挑战和机遇。
