Adults with Congenital Heart Disease in the Americas - Where we are today and where we are heading: A General View of the Inter-American Adult Congenital Heart Disease Council

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Author Info

John Jairo Araujo

Corresponding Author

John Jairo Araujo
Cochair Adult Congenital Heart Disease Council in Inter American Society of Cardiology, Colombia

A B S T R A C T

Congenital heart disease (CHD) in America has a global prevalence of 8-13 cases per 1,000 live births, with close to 45% being of medium and high complexity. Mortality continues to be high in Latin America and the Caribbean, with wide disparities in care, compared to North American countries. Fifty years ago, only 15% of children with CHD survived to age 18. Today, survival is greater than 90% in most countries worldwide. Currently, there are 2.2 million adults with congenital heart disease in the United States, with more than 1.8 million in South America. According to the Adult Congenital Heart Association, fewer than 10% of adults with congenital heart disease are estimated to be under specialized care, and more than 200 regional centers would be needed in the United States to meet the needs of this rapidly growing population. However, there are only 35 accredited programs in a total of 23 states. The scenario for Latin America and the Caribbean is bleaker and more distant, needing at least 249 programs, but lacking a formal census of centers and having few cardiologists who are experts in adult congenital heart disease. At the same time, there are insufficient paediatric cardiovascular centers. Thus, these countries have a double problem (children and adults with congenital heart disease, at the same time). In 2018, the Inter-American Society of Cardiology´s Inter-American Congenital Heart Disease Council was founded, which is working on various inter-American projects seeking to improve health care for adults with congenital heart disease.

Article Info

Article Type

Review Article

Publication history

Received: Tue 28, Apr 2020
Accepted: Wed 13, May 2020
Published: Tue 19, May 2020

Copyright

© 2023 John Jairo Araujo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.JICOA.2020.03.02