WiRED International Launches Rheumatic Heart Disease Animation in Spanish
BY ALLISON KOZICHAROW AND BERNICE BORN
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iRED International is pleased to announce the translation into Spanish of its rheumatic heart disease (RHD) animation video. A Portuguese version will be available soon. Awareness about RHD educates people about this completely preventable disease that currently affects at least 15.6 million victims.
RHD is a chronic heart condition that starts with a streptococcus (strep) infection — almost always a strep throat — which can be treated easily with antibiotics. Without treatment though, strep can progress to rheumatic fever, affect the heart, joints and central nervous system and lead to heart failure and death.
WiRED’s RHD animation video describes RHD and explains why it is so serious, why it prevails in underserved communities and why we need to address it.
The animation creates awareness, while WiRED’s Health Learning Center offers a comprehensive RHD training series for grassroots audiences, teachers and students. In addition, WiRED provides an in-depth course for health professionals, which discusses the development and pathophysiology of RHD and how to obtain and interpret echocardiograms in the diagnosis of the condition.
Recently WiRED updated its respective modules for students and teachers. WiRED has already translated its student module into Spanish, Portuguese, French and Arabic in order to spread information about RHD to at-risk populations around the world. Soon WiRED will release its RHD module for teachers in Arabic.
WiRED Director Gary Selnow, Ph.D., says, “For nearly 20 years, WiRED has been providing free health education in the world’s developing regions. Rarely is a condition so readily prevented as RHD. Our educational efforts help people see the importance of treating strep throat, and this allows them to avoid the ravages of rheumatic fever and RHD.”
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