Crucial areas of further research, clinical practice and critical issues for congenital heart disease (CHD) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Africa
| Research | Epidemiology of CHD Contemporary burden of disease estimates |
| Incidence of ARF | |
| Long-term pathogenesis and natural history studies on subclinical RHD | |
| Ideal age of screening | |
| Cost-effectiveness of echocardiography-based screening | |
| Clinical practice | Antenatal screening of CHD |
| Postnatal screening for CHD: high index of clinical suspicion | |
| Postnatal screening for critical CHD | |
| Essential medicines, for example, penicillin, heart failure medicines and point-of-care INR | |
| Critical issues | Advocacy around cardiovascular diseases, congenital and acquired. |
| Funding: innovative methods of funding of programmes for prevention, diagnosis and management | |
| Training for community, healthcare workers and patients with RHD and CHD | |
| Awareness raising for CHD and RHD | |
| Health worker retention and incentives | |
| Development of integrated management pathways | |
| Strengthening of health systems including primary healthcare |
ARF, Acute Rheumatic Fever. INR, International Normalized Ratio.