By Allah's Grace, doctors at Prince Sultan Cardiac Center of King Khaled Hospital- Najran has successfully conducted 748 heart surgeries during the first half of 1439H.; thus, contributing to saving patients' lives and alleviating their sufferings.
According to Najran Health Affairs, the surgeries included 22 open-heart surgeries and 726 cardiac catheterizations under supervision of highly qualified staff. "Since the beginning of this year, the center's clinics received 5,527 patients and provided them with consultation services through 14 clinics in the specialties of heart disease, surgery and pediatric cardiology, as well as 3,612 cardia imaging", adds the Affairs.
It is noteworthy that Prince Sultan Cardiac Center is one of the advanced centers with the capacity of 40 beds. It includes 4 modern rooms for heart surgeries and catheterization procedures, in addition to 15 ICU beds, 6 of them were inaugurated recently.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has recently started implementing the second phase of the National Program for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Detection and Treatment. As well, MOH has launched an awareness campaign entitled (Give Your Hand), which features several awareness materials to be posted on social media. “During the past two years, MOH has provided a number of quality drugs to treat HCV, while giving priority to sophisticated cases or those transmitting infections to other. The introduction of locally produced world-class drugs has help expand the scope of treatment in an unprecedented way; thus, removing priority barriers. In addition, the Program trains both doctors and coordinators, and provides lab and radiology test, as well as the logistic services needed for its implementation.
It is noteworthy that hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes both acute and chronic infection. Acute HCV infection is usually asymptomatic. About 15–30% of infected persons spontaneously clear the virus. The remaining will develop chronic HCV infection, which may lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer in some cases. HCV can be cured using new direct-acting antiviral medicines recently made available, which have proven effective with more than 95% recovery percentage. However, there is no vaccine for hepatitis C.