Ten infants and young children died in a single night in an overcrowded state-run hospital in northeastern Bangladesh, prompting authorities to investigate whether staff negligence was involved. From the AP:
The children, ranging in age from 1 day to 3 1/2 years old, had been admitted with a variety of ailments, including malnutrition, infections and pneumonia, said Abdus Salam, deputy director of M.A.G. Osmani Medical College and Hospital in the city of Sylhet. The deaths occurred between 8 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Salam said the deaths were “natural,” but relatives said negligence by doctors and nurses in the overcrowded facility were to blame.
The hospital has a capacity of 500 beds, but treats up to 1,800 patients a day, said Abdus Sabur Mia, the hospital’s director.
“In a facility like this, many die naturally every day. It’s normal,” Mia said. “But we will look into the cases of the children’s deaths seriously.”
He said results of an investigation were expected in a week.
Sylhet is 192 kilometers northeast of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital.
The impoverished South Asian country has reduced the number of infant and maternal deaths in recent years with nationwide immunization campaigns.
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Global Health and Development Beat
Condoms are the latest item to become scarce — and costly — in Venezuela. Once easy to find, condoms disappeared from pharmacy shelves as the year started, along with many food and cleaning products.
The number of deaths from Ebola has risen to 9,152, a sharp increase following weeks in which the outbreak appeared to be weakening.
Today there are more than 1,000 pharmacies serving a country of 14 million. Many Senegalese prefer to visit a pharmacy to get diagnosed and treated for minor injuries, infections and illnesses. NPR reports on how pharmacies are on the front lines of health care in Senegal.
In a remote, deeply traditional corner of northern Tanzania, growing numbers of girls are running away from home to escape genital mutilation carried out during mass initiations, reports the Thompson Reuters Foundation.
The HIV pandemic in the Caribbean is fueled by a range of social and economic inequalities and is sustained by high levels of stigma, discrimination against the most at-risk and marginalized populations and persistent gender inequality, violence and homophobia.
In Guinea, where West Africa’s Ebola outbreak began, hostility towards aid workers – fueled by ever more far-fetched rumors – is undermining efforts to contain the deadly virus.
David Beckham has marked his 10th year as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF by setting up a new personal fund, saying he wants to “raise millions” to help protect the world’s most vulnerable children.
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Buzzing in the Blogs
The case for stopping the politicization of vaccines, by Sriram Ramgopal, a resident physician in the Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, in the PLoS Global Health blog. He writes:
According to the World Health Organization, measles is a leading cause of death worldwide, despite the universal availability of a widely researched and safe vaccine against it. The disease killed over 145,000 individuals, most of them children under 5 years of age, in 2013. Immunization against diseases like measles not only protects those that receive the vaccines but also helps to protect those who are not eligible to receive them, such as young infants and children with deficient immune systems. It is these children who are also at the highest risk of grave complications ranging from encephalitis to pneumonia, and depend on the rest of us to protect them.
It is no secret that vaccination rates across the country are falling. Based on CDC data, the nationwide measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rate among 19-35 month-olds is 91.9%, down from a rate of 92.3% in 2006. Rates are falling most in Ohio, Missouri, West Virginia, Connecticut and Virginia. It is very possible that more and more parents will choose to opt out of immunizing their children for fear of side effects, thanks to the dissemination of groundless claims. In response to the current epidemic, the American Academy of Pediatrics has released a recent statement once again exhorting parents to vaccinate their children, reiterating what they have said for decades: the measles vaccine is safe and effective.
We are already burdened with a wide number of celebrities, discredited researchers, and physicians relying on anecdotes and hearsay who are more than willing to use the vaccine controversy to gain quick publicity. Politicians should be clear to the public on the proven science of vaccines and should avoid muddying the waters further. It would be better for the candidates, too: it is widely believed that Michelle Bachman lost credibility because of her statements on vaccines in 2008. Senator Paul and Governor Christie should learn a lesson from her failure and be willing to communicate a clear message to the public: vaccines are safe and are effective at protecting against dangerous diseases. Unnecessary vaccine exemptions put our greatest asset – our children – at risk.
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Capital Events
Wednesday
1:00 PM – Nigeria Decides 2015 – USIP
3:00 PM – Measuring the Learning Progress of All Children: A Citizen-led Assessment – CGD
Thursday
2:00 PM – religious Communities and Responses to Sexual Violence – Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs
Friday
10:00 AM – Revising Japan’s ODA Charter: Aiding National Security? – Brookings
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By Mark Leon Goldberg and Tom Murphy
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