Budapest, October 28, 2004 15:00

The "Matáv Gives Back" program donated HUF 2 million to the "Heart Sound" Children's Foundation. This donation has enabled the Buda Children's Hospital to modernize its metabolism screening programs. Untreated congenital metabolic diseases result in serious, irreversible damage. In order to prevent this, large-scale screening of newborn infants is immediately followed by the examination and treatment of cases detected, which will be continued throughout their lifetime.

In order to start treatment as soon as possible, metabolism screening tests used for decades have been replaced by a quicker and more accurate technology. Transition to the new method incurred additional costs. "Heart Sound" Children's Foundation contacted Matáv and asked for help in the procurement of the test materials needed for the examinations. The Foundation sees its main task in supporting child health institutions. Its goal is to improve the conditions of treatment, and to help social institutions and private persons in difficult situations. "The goals of the "Heart Sound" Children's Foundation coincide with the long-term objectives formulated in Matáv's corporate social responsibility program. The treatment of health and social problems of children and the new generations is one of our key donation areas. In addition, all Hungarian citizens are affected by the large-scale screening of infants, so we were able to help in an area that serves the overall interests of the society", said Gyula Szabó when justifying the decision made by the Board of Trustees of the "Matáv Gives Back" program.

All infants born in Hungary undergo a blood test when they are five days old. With the help of this screening, it is possible to detect diseases that result in serious, irreversible damage if not treated in time (e.g. mental retardation, disorders of motion coordination or behavior, lenticular clouding which leads to blindness). The examination and treatment of the sick infants is started immediately, and is continued throughout their lifetime. This is the precondition of enabling these children born with chronic problems to become fully integrated members of the adult society. "Experiences have indicated unambiguously that, in the case of well-functioning systems, screening and prevention are cheaper solutions than the treatment of the already sick. The existence of the screening system has been justified beyond all doubts; it was proven that the optimal treatment of the children identified as sick is very successful indeed", said Dr. László Blatniczky, Director General of the Buda Children's Hospital which performs around half of all such tests made in Hungary.