In less than two weeks, more than 50 children (most of them being newborn babies) have died at a state-run pediatric hospital.
At the beginning, the first two cases were reported on August 21 at the Sishu Bhawn in Odisha. Since then, until now there are 52 dead children. Hospital superintendent Niranjan |Mohanty told CNN that Sishu Bhawan is one of the few referral pediatric hospitals in South-Eastern India that is specialized in complicated newborn health issues.
The children who died in the past days suffered from birth asphyxia – the moment when a baby doesn’t receive enough oxygen at birth. Some of the cases involved neonatal sepsis – a blood infection that occurs in babies younger than 90 days.
National health ministry reveals that India’s current newborn mortality rate stands at 29 per 1.000 live births. India accounts the higher number of newborns and child deaths in the world, followed by Pakistan, Nigeria, Congo, China and Gupta.
Some contributors to the high rates of child mortality are poverty, nutrition and poor sanitation.
