Unhealthy babies from inter-relation marriages

Chennai(Tamil Nadu): Inter-relation marriage of parents is one of the reasons for the growing cardiac related ailments among Indian children, a noted cardiac surgeon says.
Over 2.50 lakh infants born in the country annually suffer from acute cardiac related ailments requiring complex surgeries, said
Dr P S Srimathi Seshadrinathan, senior cardiac vascular and thoracic surgeon of K J Hospital here.
"Forty per cent of these children do not have access to funds and survival ratings among them are very poor," she said.
Stating that much research is being done to identify the cause, she said one of the reasons could be inter-relation marriages, which is widely practiced in South India.
Seventy per cent of these infants can lead a normal life after undergoing surgery, Srimathi said.
She said the hospital had performed 146 surgeries on infants aged between 40 days and 18 years between December 2010 and April 2011 under the "Needy Little Hearts" project, an initiative by a city-based NGO K J Research Foundation .
Under the plan, the hospital aims to perform a minimum of 200 such operations every year, for which around Rs two crore would be required, its management said.


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