In October 2021, a mass screening mission took place in Madagascar

From October 4 to 8, 2021, in theHaute Matsiatra region of Madagascar, La Chaîne de l’Espoir led a mass screening mission for children with heart defects. This mission is part of the project to support pediatric cardiac surgery on the East African island.

40 local doctors took part in the mass screening

Led by 2 cardiologists from the Centre Hospitalier de Soavinandriana (CENHOSOA), with the help of La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s Madagascar office, the mission took place at the Centres Hospitaliers Universitaires (CHU) de Tambohobe and Andrainjato, both located in Fianarantsoa, a town in the highlands of Madagascar.

In practice, consultations were carried out by these 2 cardiologists with the support of 40 local doctors recruited from public hospitals, basic health centers and private medical centers with a high consultation rate. In this way, they were involved in the medical consultations, an activity combining training and awareness-raising.

116 children received a medical consultation

The aim of this mass screening mission was twofold:

• on the one hand, training selected healthcare staff in the telltale signs of paediatric heart disease,
• secondly, and as a knock-on effect, improved screening of children suffering from heart defects, who can then be treated by La Chaîne de l’Espoir as part of the pediatric cardiac surgery support project. Moreover, the doctors trained have been asked to refer to our association any suspected cases of heart disease that they detect in their health centers in the future.

In the course of the mission, the following were carried out:

• 9 screening sessions,
• 116 children consulted.

Of the children who received a medical consultation, 34 suffered from heart disease; 11 of these heart-sick children were enrolled in the pediatric cardiac surgery program, and 23 will be monitored by local doctors. Should their state of health change during this monitoring, they will be referred to the La Chaîne de l’Espoir program.

Finally, this was the 3rd mass screening mission organized by La Chaîne de l’Espoir as part of the project to support pediatric cardiac surgery in Madagascar. Two further missions are scheduled for 2022.