Chennai: A probe has been ordered following the death of four infants, including a newborn, within a span of 24 hours at a government hospital in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh.
According to sources, six infants under the age of four months have been reported dead in the past five days.
While three children, who died last Friday, were admitted at the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) a newborn girl died at the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) on the same day. The other three children – all male children – aged between two and four months (hailing from different parts of Shahdol district) couldn’t survive, despite being given treatment, as they were brought to the hospital after much delay.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh, while taking serious note of these incidents, has directed a probe.
During a meeting held on Monday, he directed officials to submit a report of the probe to him and said that if doctors and staff of the district hospital are found guilty, they should be punished. Such incidents should not recur, he warned.
Meanwhile, a study titled ‘Pauses and reversals of infant mortality decline in India in 2017 and 2018’, has found that Demonetisation may have reversed gains made to check the infant mortality rate (IMR).
It shows that according to the Sample Registration System (SRS) data, the decline in the IMR stagnated in 2017 and 2018 in some States, slowed down or reversed in some others.