Either actual places or just like ‘developed countries’ or ‘places where…’
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 - 1:32 am
Category: Heart Disease
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Congenital Heart Defects usually don’t have an environmental trigger. It doesn’t matter what a mother to be does to keep herself healthy… by the time she learns she’s pregnant, the heart has already formed. (EXCEPTION: Certain defects *might* occur due to bad genetics. They’re still doing research on it.)
The key number is 1/125. One out of every 125 live births, on average, will have a heart defect. There doesn’t even seem to be a gender/race that is more likely to have a defect. (African Americans are more liable to have Sickle Cell Anemia, but that is NOT considered a heart defect)
A child born in a medically advanced country has the best odds of survival, of course; but you’d be surprised at which countries those are. The USA, Canada, and most of Europe qualify; but so does South Africa and India. South Africa was where the first heart transplant occurred, in 1968. A lot of Indian students come to the US to become doctors; some stay once their residency is completed but just as many go home. Because of this, medical care in India is improving all the time.
Congenital Heart Defects usually don’t have an environmental trigger. It doesn’t matter what a mother to be does to keep herself healthy… by the time she learns she’s pregnant, the heart has already formed. (EXCEPTION: Certain defects *might* occur due to bad genetics. They’re still doing research on it.)
The key number is 1/125. One out of every 125 live births, on average, will have a heart defect. There doesn’t even seem to be a gender/race that is more likely to have a defect. (African Americans are more liable to have Sickle Cell Anemia, but that is NOT considered a heart defect)
A child born in a medically advanced country has the best odds of survival, of course; but you’d be surprised at which countries those are. The USA, Canada, and most of Europe qualify; but so does South Africa and India. South Africa was where the first heart transplant occurred, in 1968. A lot of Indian students come to the US to become doctors; some stay once their residency is completed but just as many go home. Because of this, medical care in India is improving all the time.