The health committee of the "Who Loves Egypt?" campaign called on the Health Ministry to establish 18 medical centers specialized in heart surgery for children. According to the committee, at least 10,000 children require this kind of surgery every year.
The committee chairman in Daqahlia, Adel al-Gamal said that Egypt has one of the highest death rates from heart diseases in the world.
20,000 children are born with heart defects in Egypt annually, according to Gamal. 15,000 of them require surgery, and their families are often low-income, he added.
Egypt has 9 medical centers for heart surgery, treating 5,000 cases annually, leaving 10,000 cases on waiting lists. Many of those children are threatened with death, if they do not receive treatment on time, Gamal said.
He called on the Ministry of Health and civil society organizations to work on increasing the number of specialized centers, especially in south Upper Egypt.
