Côte d’Ivoire has inaugurated a specialised paediatric cardiac surgery centre at the Mother and Child Hospital in Bingerville, seeking to improve access to treatment for children with congenital heart defects and reduce the need for medical evacuations abroad.
First Lady Dominique Ouattara presided over the inauguration on Friday, alongside Angola’s First Lady Ana Afonso Dias Lourenço and Benin’s First Lady Nathalie Villette-Wadagni, according to the Ivorian News Agency (AIP).
The centre was established through a partnership between the Children of Africa Foundation, chaired by Dominique Ouattara, and the French non-governmental organisation La Chaîne de l’Espoir. It is intended to strengthen the country’s capacity to diagnose and treat heart conditions in children and newborns.
The facility is equipped with operating theatres designed for open-heart surgery on young patients, an extracorporeal circulation machine used to maintain blood circulation during certain cardiac procedures, and a comprehensive cardiology diagnostic unit.
It also includes 20 beds for neonatology and neonatal intensive care, as well as 22 beds dedicated to paediatric surgery, according to information released at the inauguration.
The centre is expected to allow more children to receive specialised cardiac care in Côte d’Ivoire, potentially easing the financial and logistical burden on families who must seek treatment overseas.
To support its operations, Ivorian medical teams have received specialised training in Caen and Paris in France, Dakar in Senegal, and at the Abidjan Institute of Cardiology.
Professor Gérard Babatasi, a former head of cardiac surgery at Caen University Hospital in France, has also joined the Bingerville hospital team, Dominique Ouattara said in her address.
The project forms part of efforts to expand specialised healthcare services locally. However, the extent to which the new centre will reduce overseas medical transfers will depend on its capacity to treat patients, the availability of specialist staff and the complexity of individual cases.
Figures presented by Dominique Ouattara at the ceremony indicate that congenital heart defects affect approximately one in every 100 births in Côte d’Ivoire, with an estimated 50% to 60% of affected children requiring surgery.
Untreated congenital heart conditions can threaten children’s lives and affect their growth and development. Early diagnosis and access to appropriate treatment are therefore critical to improving outcomes.
Ouattara said that congenital heart disease should not be considered a fatal condition when it is diagnosed and treated in time. She cited a figure of 95% for the proportion of operated children who reach adulthood when they receive appropriate diagnosis and surgery. That figure was presented in her speech and was not independently verified for this report.
The inauguration was attended by health-sector partners, including Professor Euloge Kramo Kouadio, director general of the Abidjan Institute of Cardiology, and Professor Gabriel Ciss, director of the Cardio-Paediatric Centre in Dakar, whose institution supported the training of Ivorian teams.
For Côte d’Ivoire, the new centre represents an investment in specialised paediatric care and local medical expertise. Its long-term impact will depend on sustained staffing, access to diagnostic services and surgery, and the ability of families to obtain timely treatment.