Saving Young Hearts
About The Rheumatic Relief Program
Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is a significant cause of disability and death in many parts of the world, including the Pacific Islands. This disease is triggered by a bacterial infection and leads to heart valve damage. If diagnosed early, progress of RHD can be halted and children can lead normal and healthy lives. The Rheumatic Relief Program screens thousands of school children every year to diagnose RHD at its earliest stages.
What is the Rheumatic Relief Program?
The BYU Rheumatic Relief Program is a study abroad program that brings Cardiologists, Cardiac Sonographers and BYU students together to educate and screen thousands of school children each year. School children are educated about how to minimize exposure to the bacteria through songs, puppet shows, and discussion.
Through generous donors, we also provide donated books for the children on the Samoan and American Samoan islands. Each child chooses books to take home.
Rheumatic Relief has flourished to become a viable clinical and educational program with the potential of saving the lives of hundreds of children, as well as contributing to the clinical protocol for the diagnosis of RHD. Included in the educational aspect is the training and certification of indigenous health care in the area of echocardiography, which offers the sustainability of this life-saving program.
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We screened 5,624 children in Samoa and had 122 positive cases of Rheumatic Heart Disease.
We collected 16,000 books from donations to take to the children in Samoa
Various studies have been published on Rheumatic Heart Disease since first trip in 2009
2,400 children were screened for Rheumatic Heart Disease and 92 were diagnosed.
We discovered 10 children with advanced heart disease that will need surgical intervention in the near future.
9000 of donated books were sent to American Samoa.