Five newsborn babies die in 4 hours in Assam

GUWAHATI: Five new born babies, aged between 4-2 days, and admitted in Fakkhrudin Ali Ahmed Medical College at Barpeta in Assam have died in less than 4 hours last evening on October 4.

Hospital authorities have told the district administration representatives on preliminary investigation that the four of the mothers of 4 inborn babies were not getting the required care during their pregnancy leading to underweight foetus.

Sources in the district administration said that the government-run hospital is also facing shortage of doctors.

Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "They were all in sick new born babies care unit and under proper medical attention was given. It is solely the critical nature of the cases that led to the deaths. Two mothers are below the age of 20."

He added that there are stable number of doctors in the child care unit. "In fact just before 2 months we have opened the sick new born care unit and augmented manpower."
Assam has been showing a high infant mortality rate in previous years. According to the Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin, released by the Office of the Registrar General on Friday last, the highest IMR in 2016 was reported in Madhya Pradesh (47) followed by Assam and Odisha (44), Uttar Pradesh (43) and Rajasthan (41). Assam however recorded a decline by two points over 2015. The lowest IMR was reported by Goa (8) followed by Kerala and Puducherry (10). Nationally, an 8% decline was recorded.

Sarma said that the medical college is witnessing less infant mortality this year in comparison to previous years. "In fact the IMR is going down in last 2 months. These mortalities are related to purely critical nature like age of mothers, weight of babies," he said.