21.01.2020

The TecoTerm Neo unit and an electroencephalography unt were donated today by the AYALA Charity Foundation to the Oblast Perinatal Centre in Atyrau. The equipment was purchased using a private person donation and transfers made by Kazakhstanis through Kassa4 terminals during 2019.

The Foundation is convinced that this medical equipment will help the region reduce neonatal mortality caused by severe forms of hypoxia.

In the structure of infant mortality, newborn children make up more than 60 percent, with one of the main causes of their death being the 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. It triggers a cascade of pathological physiological processes at birth, that cause the death of brain cells.

The hypothermia unit does a very delicate and vital job. It accurately, with a very precise dosage of the temperature level, cools the entire body of the newborn or parts of it. Precise temperature exposure allow to adjust blood flow and control restoration of cells or affected areas of the infants’ brain. It is very important to use therapeutic hypothermia in the very first hours and even minutes of a newborn’s life. Then there is a chance to restore functioning of brain cells.

The transfer of equipment took place as part of the republican project Controllable Hypothermia, which the AYALA Foundation has been implementing since 2017. During this time, the Foundation, with the support of the RoK Ministry of Healthcare, helped register equipment for therapeutic hypothermia in Kazakhstan for the first time, 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 annually, including from Atyrau and the oblast, in the latest methods of hypothermic neuroprotection of newborns. With the active work of the Foundation, the mandatory purchase of hypothermia equipment for perinatal centres in each region in 2019-2021 was included in the Republican Action Plan to reduce infant mortality. With the support of sponsors, the Foundation installed 6 TecoTerm Neo units in 5 cities of Kazakhstan for a total amount of more than 86 million tenge. This equipment has proven its efficiency in the daily practice of the largest perinatal centres in Kazakhstan.