Divisional Commissioner Tahir Hussain has emphasised the parents and teachers of the children having age group from 5 to 15 years with repeated attacks of sore throat to consult cardiologists without any delay so that proper medication could be provided to these children before their heart valves get inflamed due to rheumatic fever.
He expressed these views while talking to media persons during his visit to Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology (FIC) on the occasion of "World Heart Day" on Saturday. The Commissioner gave a message to the people at large that they should show their concern about timely diagnosis of rheumatic fever which would save the children having repeated sore throat from eventual surgery for replacement of mitral and aortic valves costing hundreds of thousands of rupees.
The Commissioner hailed the administration of FIC for their excellent continued medical education programme through which the family physicians and general medical practitioners are approached for awareness regarding treatment of rheumatic fever and prevention of rheumatic heart diseases.
The Commissioner also visited various wards of FIC and asked about the health and welfare of different cardiac patients under treatment there. Medical Superintendent FIC Dr Mian Zahid Maalik told the Commissioner that more than 1500 open heart surgeries have been done in FIC since its inception four years ago while angiography of 13430 patients was successfully performed and 2560 patients went through non-surgical invasion called angioplasty.