More than 50 children, most of them newborn babies, have died in
less than two weeks at a state-run pediatric hospital in one of India's most
impoverished regions, authorities say.
The first two
cases were reported on August 21 at the Sishu Bhawan hospital in Odisha state
on India's east coast. Since then, 52 children have died, hospital
superintendent Niranjan Mohanty told CNN.
Sishu Bhawan is
one of the few referral pediatric hospitals in south-eastern India that
specializes in complicated newborn health issues, he said.
But he admitted
the hospital is overwhelmed. On average, the 416-bed facility receives at
least 450 children daily from across Odisha and neighboring states -- at least
50 requiring intensive care.
Most of the
children who died in the past days suffered from birth asphyxia -- when a baby
doesn't receive enough oxygen at birth. Other cases involved neonatal sepsis, a
blood infection that occurs in infants younger than 90 days.
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