CHANDIGARH: Over 60% of schoolgirls in Punjab who are detected with heart diseases are not given any treatment and are presumably left to die. This startling finding has been brought out in a study, published this month in a British medical journal ‘Heart Asia’.
The study has found that despite schoolchildren getting free treatment for heart diseases under the National Health Mission (at the time of the study it was the National Rural Health Mission), only 37% girls were treated surgically in Punjab. The prevalence of the coronary heart disease and rheumatic heart disease in India is 1:1 (male to female ratio).
This ratio was found to be 1.6:1 in 519 school children from across Punjab under the study. This means that more boys reported heart ailments.
According to the 2011 census, Punjab’s child sex ratio is 846 girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group. The national average is 919. Punjab is the second worst state in the country after Haryana (834).
Of the 519 children who underwent cardiac intervention, 195 (37.6%) were girls and 324 (62.4%) were boys.
Please click here to read more.