A set for therapeutic hypothermia - TecoTerm Neo and electroencephalography devices - was donated today by AYALA Charity Foundation to the Regional Perinatal Centers in Atyrau and Turkestan. For Atyrau the equipment worth 23.6 million tenge was purchased for the donation of a private person and for transfers that Kazakhstani people made through the Kassa24 terminals during 2019. For Turkestan the equipment was purchased with the sponsorship support of Halyk Bank. The foundation is convinced that this medical equipment will help the region reduce the mortality of newborns caused by severe forms of hypoxia.

In the structure of infant mortality, newborns account for more than 60%, and one of the main causes of their death is damage to the central nervous system, of which 70% is a consequence of hypoxia. Hypoxic-ischemic brain damage occurs in newborns due to acute perinatal asphyxia and is diagnosed in 47% of pathological conditions of the neonatal period. At birth, it triggers a cascade of pathological physiological processes that cause brain cell death.

The hypothermia apparatus does a very delicate and vital work. It neatly, with a very accurate dosage of the temperature level cools the entire body of the newborn or his/her parts. Point temperature effects allow adjust blood flow and thereby control the restoration of cells or affected areas of the brain of infants. It is very important to apply therapeutic hypothermia in the very first hours and even minutes of a newborn’s life. Then there is a chance to restore the functioning of brain cells. If there is no such a device in the hospital, the child is more likely to remain with severe functional lesions of the central nervous system, and in the worst case, he/she may die.To date, therapeutic hypothermia is considered as the world's main recognized physical (non-drug) method of protecting the brain of newborns with hypoxic-ischemic injuries.

This is also confirmed by the data received by AYALA foundation from the capital's National Research Center for Maternal and Child Health. There, from November 2017 to June 2019, 72 newborns were treated in the intensive care unit with moderate and severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy using the TecoTerm Neo apparatus. More than half of these children were born premature with a body weight from 1800 grams.

As reported in this center, the effectiveness of therapeutic hypothermia has been determined by clinical, laboratory and instrumentation investigations, as well as by the results of monitoring children. In 95% of cases, a positive result was obtained: children with complete clinical recovery in satisfactory condition were discharged home. Subsequently, the medical supervision showed that all these children became healthy without any neurological disorders.

“Implementation of projects to reduce infant mortality and disability is a key priority for our foundation. Over 12 years, we have provided assistance to dozens of state children's medical institutions throughout Kazakhstan. Thanks to our projects such as “Breathe, baby”, “Breathe life”, “I also want to live”, tens of thousands of children's lives were saved in Kazakhstan. Since 2017, our foundation has been actively involved in the search for sponsors for equipping perinatal centers with hypothermia equipment. Over 3 years, with the support of sponsors, we have installed 3 of these devices - in the Nur-Sultan National Research Center of Mother and Child Health and in the Center for Perinatology and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery in Almaty. And we are very happy today to transfer the fourth set of equipment to the Regional Perinatal Center of Atyrau. I am sure that this will help to improve the infant and child survival rates in Atyrau region,” President of AYALA Charity Foundation Aidan Suleimenova said.

The transfer of the equipment took place as part of the republican project “Managed hypothermia”, which AYALA foundation has been implementing since 2017. Over this time, the foundation, with the support of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, helped register the equipment for therapeutic hypothermia for the first time in Kazakhstan, issued guidelines for doctors and nurses on therapeutic hypothermia, contributed to the creation of a unified Protocol on hypothermia, trained and continues to train hundreds of Kazakhstani doctors and nurses, including doctors from Atyrau and Atyrau region, to the latest methods of hypothermic neuroprotection of newborns every year. With the active work of the foundation, a mandatory purchase of hypothermia equipment for perinatal centers in each region in 2019-2021 was introduced into the Republican Plan of Measures to Reduce Infant Mortality. With the support of sponsors, the foundation installed 5 TecoTerm Neo devices in 6 cities of Kazakhstan for a total of more than 86 million tenge. This equipment has proved its effectiveness in the daily practice of the largest perinatal centers of Kazakhstan.

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