india

Updated: Nov 11, 2019 20:37 IST

A day after reports of deaths of 6 infants in a village in backward Malkangiri district came in; a team of specialist doctors who visited the area said the children suffered from acute respiratory infection.

The medical team from Koraput has been instructed to conduct proper screening and checkups and necessary tests of infants in the village for the next one week.

The children aged between 2 and 5 months had died between October 13 and November 8. The villagers attributed the deaths to some ‘unknown disease’. The one-month-old son of Amit Salbam from Tamanpalli village was the first to die after he developed respiratory problems. He was followed by the two-month-old son of Raju Kunj, who died while being taken to the Malkangiri district headquarters hospital.

Following these deaths, a 3-member team of doctors from the Laxman Nayak Medical College and Hospital in Koraput district visited the village and collected blood samples of the other affected children on Monday.

“From some samples, it was found that the infants were suffering from acute respiratory infection. The children initially suffered from cold and cough which resulted in acute respiratory infection of the lower tract. As they were malnourished they succumbed to the infection,” said Dr S Sahu, one of the visiting doctors.

Odisha health minister Naba Kishore Das said the infants could have survived had their parents taken them to hospital in time. “At present, the situation is under control. But the infections happened due to change of season and the unhealthy customs of their parents. A lot of sensitization on healthcare is necessary in the district,” he said.

Ruling out the outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis or Acute Encephalitis Syndrome that killed over 100 children in the district in 2016, Das admitted that the children were acutely malnourished and were suffering from low birth weight.

Acute Respiratory Infection is recognised as one of the most fatal diseases among children throughout the world. As per the National Health Profile – 2019, last year a whopping 17.92 lakh number of people were infected by this disease in Odisha of whom 58 had succumbed to it.

According to the latest data on Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)-2017, Odisha with 41 deaths per 1000 children ranks third in the country in infant mortality.