NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, JAN 5
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani kept mum and simply ignored when reporters asked to comment on the reports of the deaths of over 100 infants in Rajkot and Ahmedabad hospitals during December 2019.
The Chief Minister, who was speaking to a group of reporters, ignored a question on the infants’ death and chose to walk away. According to the recent reports, 134 newborns have died at a government hospital in Rajkot in the last one month. The cause of death of children are said to be malnutrition, diseases from birth, premature delivery, and mother’s malnourishment.
The children who died in a civil hospital in Rajkot are also said to be newborns like the ones reported in Kota. Reports claim that the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) does not have the capacity and the required facilities to treat children weighing less than 2.5 kg.
This is yet another incident highlighting the spate of infant deaths over a month. A report released by the superintendent of JK Lon Hospital in Kota, Rajasthan stated that 77 children died last month itself till December 24, while a total of 940 infants died this year.
As of now, the toll in the Kota hospital has reached 110 and the reason for the death is stated to be hypothermia (body temperature imbalance).
A similar situation is being seen at the hospitals in Rajkot and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
According to official records, in 2019, Rajkot recorded 1235 deaths of infants, while, Jamnagar recorded 639 deaths.
The state government argues that around 400 children are admitted in hospitals every month out of which, 80-90 children die of premature delivery and malnutrition at the time of birth.
However, officials maintaining that children brought from private hospitals in critical condition to government hospital were the reason for increasing the death rate in government hospitals.
