KARACHI, Dec 28: A US-based cardiologist, Dr Nadeem Afridi, at a symposium on Thursday said that Rheumatic Heart Diseases (RHD) were very common in those developing countries that had failed to ensure an improved cleanliness standard and hygienic condition.

He was speaking as a guest speaker at the moot organised by the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) in collaboration with the Association of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) at the university.

Dr Afridi was of the view that a lack of cleanliness in houses and hospitals contributed a lot towards the evolvement of RHD. To save from this, people should ensure proper hygiene in their food and water, he added.

He noted that due to high fever, physicians could not diagnose this disease in time and as such there was a need to impart special training to physicians for the diagnosis of heart disease.

The average age of women patients of RHD was 13.5 while men’s was 35 years, while every year 3.7 million deaths occurred due to this disease, Dr Afridi said.

In his inaugural address at the scientific conference, the vice-chancellor of the DUHS, Prof Masood Hameed Khan, said that his university would establish a joint research advisory board soon to promote research activities in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

He informed the participants of the conference that Jinnah Genome Centre would be established soon at the Ojha campus of the university at an estimated cost of Rs182 million where research work would be done on genes to cure harmful diseases.