Labour room infection results in several newborn deaths

Thiruvananthapuram, May 2 (UNI) Alarmed over the reports that the cause of at least 23 out of 35 newborn deaths at the Kerala's premier medical college hospital here in April was labour room infection, Health Minister P K Sreemathy today removed Sree Avittam Tirunal (SAT) superintendent Rajmohan from his post and instituted a five-member panel to probe the matter.

After a meeting of the state cabinet, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan told newspersons here that the Health Minister was asked to visit the hospital immediately to assess the situation.

Ms Sreemathy said Mr Rajmohan had been removed from the post with immediate effect and sought an explanation from him for the lapses on his part to inform the government when deaths occurred due to hospital-acquired infection.

Dr Lalitha Kailas would be given the additial charge of Superintendent.

A five-member panel, headed by Dr Rajasekharan Nair, professor and consultant gynaecologist of the Sree Uthradam Tirunal Academy of Medical Sciences here, had been constituted to study the issue and submit a report within three weeks.

Apart from that, a sum of Rs one crore would be made available to the SAT hospital on the medical college campus for renovation.

She said all steps would be taken to improve the facilities at the hospital where on an average 2,500 deliveries were being reported every month.

''We will be in a position to give the exact number of neonatal deaths due to hospital-acquired infection only after getting the report,'' she said, adding that it was a serious issue even if one death was reported due to that reason.

According to sources, 23 deaths were microbiologically confirmed due to infections, caused by the presence of multi-drug resistant strains of bacteria.

The sources said unhygienic conditions in the labour rooms and lack of cleanliness inside the neonatal intensive care units could be responsible for the outbreak.

Health officials were worried over the deaths as Kerala's health care system was said to be on par with that of the developed countries.

Kerala has the lowest infant mortality rate of 14.1 as against an all-India average of 70.5.

UNI