Madras Mission to help Uganda Heart Institute

By Charles Wendo THE Uganda Heart Institute will soon receive technical support from the Madras Medical Mission of India. Prof. K.M. Cherian, founder of the Madras Medical Mission, will visit the Uganda Heart Institute this weekend. Cherian, a renowned Indian surgeon, was working with a team of heart experts in Nairobi, where they offered free services to children with heart diseases. The Madras Medical Mission, a Non Governmental Organisation established in 1982, runs a heart hospital, the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Madras, India. The hospital is able to perform such complicated operations like open heart surgery including heart transplant, the highest form of heart operations. Cherian will discuss with Mulago heart surgeons how to improve the Uganda Heart Institute so that it can handle more heart patients. The Uganda heart Institute can at the moment only carry out few heart operations but is looking forward to modern operations. Heart diseases have been on the increase in Uganda mostly due to changing lifestyle. The main causes of this increase of heart diseases include stress, increased consumption of fatty foods and smoking. The Uganda Heart Institute was established in 1988 in a joint effort between the Uganda Heart Foundation, the Ministry of Health, Mulago Hospital and Makerere University. The institute is found on the Ground Floor of Block C in New Mulago. At present it offers services to at least 600 heart patients a month. The facilities offered at the institute include surgery, medical treatment and diagnostic services. The Uganda Heart Institute hopes to benefit from the experience, expertise and facilities in Madras, which is now one of the world's leading centres for the treatment of heart diseases. The Madras institute also carries out research and training in this field. At least 50 Ugandans have undergone sophisticated heart operations at the Madras Institute.