Malda Hospital Reports Six More Infants Dying of Common Cold

Six babies, agonising of "common cold" died within eight hours in the neo-natal unit of Malda District's Sadar Hospital. br>
Hospital authorities have attributed the deaths to proper facilities, but the inconsolable families of the deceased babies have charged the hospital with negligence.

The babies were aged between a month and two months, and were referred to the hospital from far-flung areas when they were in critical conditions, mostly with respiratory problems.

The report of fresh infant deaths comes more than a month after 26 newborns had died in the same government hospital over a period of six days.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in-charge of the health department, had named a high-level task force to look into rising infant death cases in state-run hospitals.

The task force visited the Malda hospital and said that the facility lacks adequate number of doctors and health workers and the hygiene levels were also low.

Source: ANI