Penicillin is also very useful in heart diseases in children
Washington: Another benefit of the popular antibiotic penicillin has come from Africa, where it has been found to be very effective in rheumatic heart disease in children.
It should be noted that rheumatoid heart disease (RHD) occurs especially in children after a certain type of fever in which their heart valves are severely affected. The disease can occur after a streptococcal (bacterial) infection and the heart begins to be affected. RHD kills 306,000 people a year in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to children, people under the age of 25 are most affected.
RHD is found in poor countries, especially in African children. Now, according to a new study, it has been tested on a large number of Ugandan children, details of which have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study was led by Craig Sable, a cardiologist at Children’s National Hospital in Washington. He has extensively tested penicillin in children. According to the results, the use of penicillin can not only prevent RHD from growing, but also prevent further damage to the baby’s heart.
When some children are brought to Ugandan hospitals, their heart valves become very difficult and incurable. Second, the lack of valve surgery facilities in a backward country leads to a large number of deaths.
The project, dubbed ‘Child Heart Protection’, looked at 818 children aged 5 to 17. All patients had rheumatic heart disease. Experts consider the effects of penicillin injections on these children.
A total of 799 people went through the entire trial process out of which 399 people completed their course and two years later only three of them got worse. On the other hand, there were 400 people who were not given penicillin and 33 of them became very ill.
On the one hand, this research has shown the effectiveness of penicillin itself and on the other hand, all the experts agree that timely diagnosis can also help in treatment and saving lives.
