Novartis collaboration aims to eliminate rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Zambia, Africa

Novartis International AG / Novartis collaboration aims to eliminate rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Zambia, Africa . Processed and transmitted by Thomson Reuters ONE. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

• RHD has been eliminated in most developed nations, but sub-Saharan Africa studies show at least 2-3% of school-age children suffer from this often fatal disease[1]
  
  
• Collaboration between Novartis physicians, Zambian healthcare providers, cardiologists from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Pan-African Cardiology Society will promote RHD prevention by treating children with streptococcal infections and silent RHD
  
  
• The collaboration will screen 3,000 Zambian children by echocardiography and provide monthly penicillin injections to children with silent RHD to prevent recurrent strep throat and associated cardiac damage

Basel, Switzerland/Cambridge, MA, February 28, 2013 - Novartis today announced that it has launched an effort to eliminate rheumatic heart disease in Zambia in collaboration with the Lusaka University Teaching Hospital (UTH), the Ministry of Health in Zambia, the Pan-African Cardiology Society and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

RHD is a complication of untreated streptococcal infections in which the valves of the heart are scarred and eventually degenerate, leading to heart failure. Eliminated by antibiotic treatment in most developed nations, in the developing world an estimated 15 million children suffer from this debilitating and often fatal disease[1].

"The toll of heart failure in young children with RHD in Zambia is immense, for the patient, their families, and the nation," said Mark C. Fishman, Cardiologist and President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). "It is entirely preventable. For the past several years Novartis has been working with colleagues in Lusaka to help understand and treat asthma in young children. We are expanding the collaboration to raise awareness, educate, and provide antibiotic therapy to prevent RHD."

To measure RHD prevalence and identify those in need of secondary prophylaxis, teams of health care professionals from Lusaka UTH, the MGH, and Novartis will use portable echocardiography machines to evaluate 3,000 children, ages 9-10, in Lusaka-area public schools. Echocardiography screening is estimated to detect more than 10 times as many cases as clinical screening[1].