Tanzania’s heart institute is all set to treat more patients in 2019

Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI), plans to perform surgeries to more than 1,500 in its efforts to decrease the number of patients, who are broached to abroad for treatment.

 

The executive director of JKCI, Prof Mohamed Janabi, said that, "last year the institute conducted a total of 1,356 surgeries. Our main intention is to continue to save people's lives. Hopefully one day with the increasing cardiovascular treatment skills to our experts we will not be sending patients abroad."

 

Prof Janabi also revealed the intent of JKCI to continue using the support of its donor countries to extend cooperation and skills particularly in strengthening treatment for children with heart defects.

 

On that day the institute received a visit from the embassies of Germany and the high commission of Cananda who commited to continue with their support.

 

Prof Janabi, said, "At present, we have received one of the top three children cardiologists from Germany, that is, Prof Felix Berger, who will train and guide Tanzanian specialists in that respective field." 

 

For this, Prof Berger who is from the Medical University in Berlin, further said, "It is my third time visit over here. I help children. I also train and teach physicians and nurses to obtain expertise in the field."

 

However, the head of the Cardiology Unit at JKCI, Dr Peter Kisenge, stated, "the institute is still in need of more experts as number of patients in the centre had reched 7,000 per month. On average we were supposed to to have 50 senior specialists but presently we have only 12."

 

Government via the Ministry of Health reported that neverthless of the fact that there was an addition of the number of patients with heart diseases from 64,085 in 2017 to 83,718 in 2018, the number of deaths caused by heart defects has reduced.

 

It was reported that the number of deaths dropped down to 1,253 in 2018 from 1,904 in 2017.