Open Access

ARTICLE

Is population‐based screening for rheumatic heart disease precluded by the Cairo accord? Echocardiography...and beyond

Carlos E. B. Branco¹, Roney O. Sampaio¹, Flavio Tarasoutchi¹, Justin P. Zachariah²

1 INCOR Department of Valvular Heart Disease, University of São Paulo School of Medicine, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Sao Paolo, Brazil
2 Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, Texas

* Corresponding Author: Justin Zachariah, MD, MPH, Texas Children’s Hospital West Tower 19th floor, 6621 Fannin St Houston, TX 77030. Email:

Congenital Heart Disease 2018, 13(6), 1069-1071. https://doi.org/10.1111/chd.12676

Abstract

In the 2017, “Cairo Accord on Rheumatic Heart Disease—From Molecules to The Global Community” experts from endemic areas enumerated an approach to reduce the population burden of rheumatic heart disease. The 10 key recommendations in‐ clude immediate logistical objectives as well as domains for further study. Echocardiographic population screening programs were relegated to research alone. Given the large body of supporting data, relegating echo screening to an investiga‐ tional modality is an opportunity lost.

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