Eight Infants Die in Three Days in MP Hospital, CM Orders Probe

Preterm birth is the second leading cause of deaths in infants in India, preceded only by pneumonia.

(Photo: Harsh Sahani/The Quint)

Eight infants have died in the last three days in a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol, 490 kilometres from the state capital Bhopal, reported NDTV. According to the report, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has ordered a high-level probe into circumstances leading to the deaths.

The New Indian Express reported that three children, who died on Friday, were admitted at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), while a newborn girl died at the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) on the same day.

The children were from tribal-dominated Shahdol, Umaria and Anuppur districts.

Health Minister Dr Prabhuram Chowdhary has said that as per initial investigations most of the infants died of pneumonia and respiratory complications.

"On the Chief Minister's order, the additional chief secretary Mohammad Suleman has been tasked with conducting a probe into the deaths of the children at the Shahdol district hospital," he told reporters.