The government of Nepal provides free cardiac treatment to children below the age of 15 years. However not many know about it nor get properly diagnosed at the earliest stage. The children JMT has come in contact with have either reached the stage of surgery or have just crossed the age bar set by the government for free treatment. Hence JMT has started going into community in and around Pokhara to screen children from the age of 1 years- 15 years to identify early cardiac cases and refer them for primary or secondary treatment. This project has largely been facilitated by the echo machine donated to JMT by Edwards laboratories, USA and it is making the best use of it. JMT hopes not only to pick up primary pediatric cardiac cases but collect concrete data of pediatric cardiac cases which as of now is unavailable in the country.

So far, we have been able to screen 987 children of which 93 of them have been identified as the suspected cases. Till date, 40 suspected cases have undergone their secondary tests at Western Regional Hospital and 10 cases have been confirmed. All costs are borne by Jayanti Memorial Trust. The data being generated calls for a greater attention amongst children with Rheumatic Heart Disease in Nepal.