Nineteen cradle deaths in two days in West Bengal
The deaths were due to meningitis, pneumonia and low-birth weight.
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In the span of two days, 10 infant deaths were reported from the Sammilani Medical College in Bankura district and nine deaths from the Malda Medical College and Hospital.
The deaths were due to meningitis, pneumonia and low-birth weight, said P. Kundu, superintendent of Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital.
He said that four children died on Wednesday and six babies the next day.
M.A. Rashid, vice principal of the Malda hospital said of the nine infant deaths at the Malda hospital, seven of them were 15-day-old.
He said most of the newborns came from rural hospitals in Malda district and outside with problems ranging from pneumonia to septicaemia.
With nine more deaths, the toll in the Malda hospital has shot up to 125 in the last 16 days, Rashid said.
Experts belonging to Sick Newborn Care Units would shortly visit the hospital to have a look at the infrastructure, he added.
Kundu said the facility, which caters to patients from Purulia and Raniganj, has adequate doctors, a neo-natal unit and 112 beds in the paediatric ward, but the rush was tremendous with 194 patients being admitted on Friday.
The state has been witnessing an increasing number of infant deaths at government facilities.
State chief minister Mamata Banerjee has attributed the deaths to malnutrition and birth at home.
Observing that 50,000 babies die each year in the state because they were born at home, Banerjee had recently said, "It is not due to hospital treatment that they are dying. They don't come to hospital. When they come, they are gasping. There is no scope of treating them."
Source: The Pioneer
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