The death toll has gone up to 1,317. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav 18.08.2017)
Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital recorded 13 more deaths among children in the last 24 hours since Friday. The death toll has gone up to 1,317 for this year. Out of the 13, ten children were in the NICU ward and three were in the general pediatric ward, newly-instated principal Dr PK Singh told news agency PTI.
He said that no new deaths were recorded in the ward housing encephalitis patients, adding that 53 new patients with the disease have been admitted to the medical institution.
On Saturday morning, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF) arrested Dr Kafeel Khan who was the in-charge of the encephalitis ward. Seven days ago, the state government had suspended him from his role at the hospital due to the deaths of close to 60 children in one week beginning August 7, reportedly caused by lack of oxygen.
“Kafeel Khan was apprehended today at around 9 am from Gorakhpur and he is being handed over to Gorakhpur Police,” IG Special Task Force Amitabh Yash said.
The hospital, coming under the constituency of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, recently made headlines for its unusually high numbers of infants deaths, all of them suffering from the encephalitis virus. The deaths were blamed on lack of supply oxygen to the patients. It was alleged that the hospital administration had not cleared the bills of the vendor supplying the cylinders.