5 kids die of respiratory ailments in a day in Kolkata, at least 2 of adenovirus

KOLKATA: Acute respiratory infection (ARI) claimed the lives of five children in Kolkata on Tuesday, the highest single-day casualty, two of them from confirmed adenovirus infections.
ARI is now responsible for the deaths of at least 10 children over the last four days across city hospitals. The health department has asked government hospitals to take steps to counter the surge (see graphic).

While it is not known whether all the five children who died had adenovirus, each of them developed severe ARI, which caused acute pneumonia.
According to hospital sources, two of the five children who eventually lost their lives were admitted to Medical College Hospital Kolkata (MCH); the other three were at Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences. At each hospital, a child was adenovirus-positive.
Paediatric units at these two hospitals are struggling to cope with the pressure, mainly due to referrals from districts. "This is causing problems. A lot of time is wasted travelling to the city. In most cases, the referred child is in bad shape by the time they reach," said a health official.
Monday's advisory addresses this problem. Doctors can now refer a patient with a nod from the hospital medical superintendent, only after ensuring a bed at the destination hospital.
MCH sources said one of the deaths at the hospital - not the confirmed adenovirus case - was that of an infant from Madhyamgram with heart defects. "Infants less than a year old are the most vulnerable," said a paediatrician.