Dr Sulafa Ali and her team at the Sudan Heart Institute in Khartoum have made great strides in increasing public health resources for RHD in Sudan. The Institute’s hospital-based register had indicated a clustering of RHD cases in the regions of Darfur and Kordufan, which led the team to advocate to the Ministers of Health in these regions for increased resources to prevent and control RHD. They were successful in their goal, as the Ministers agreed to establish one new centre for RHD in each region. 

In Darfur, the centre will be built in Niyala, a large, centrally located city which is the home of many RHD cases. Government fundraising is pledged to supply an echocardiography machine, as all physicians joining the centre will be trained in diagnosis of RHD (including via echocardiography) as well as management and prevention. Two paediatricians have already been assigned to the centre; they have since carried out RHD awareness workshops for 37 community health workers in Niyala, and have plans to roll out their awareness programme to other areas of Sudan.

In Kordufan, the centre will be built in Al Obeid, again the largest central town in the region. As an inspiring example of positive South-South collaboration, Miot Hospitals in India have given the resident paediatric cardiologist extensive training in India, as well as donating an echo machine to the facility. In order for the centres to contribute to wider strengthening of the health systems, each will be equipped with a dedicated community health worker and a health promotion officer, so that these centres might benefit the local population beyond the prevention and control of RHD.