Gorakhpur tragedy 2.0? 61 children die in 3 days at BRD Medical College

Tragedy has struck yet again at BRD Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur district. At least 61 children have died in the past 72 hours due to various health ailments including encephalitis, health complexities in newborns, pneumonia and sepsis.

According to reports, 11 deaths have been reported in the encephalitis ward, 25 in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and another 25 in the general paediatric ward. Doctors fear that the number of deaths is likely to increase in the coming days. 

Also, this incident coincides with the news of the arrest of the former principal of BRD Medical College, Dr Rajeev Mishra, and his wife Purnima Shukla in Kanpur in connection with the 60 deaths between August 7 and 11.

The two were arrested from Saket Nagar in Kanpur, said Special Task Force (STF) Inspector General Amitabh Yash. 

The hospital authorities had earlier said that the children died of encephalitis and not due to lack of oxygen supply.

Death toll likely to rise

Local doctors fear that the death toll will increase in the coming days owing to heavy rainfall and water-logging that helps in spreading acute encephalitis syndrome (AES). 

A paediatrician, Dr RN Singh, told Hindustan Times that insufficient homework was done to control the outspread of AES in January and following this, the entire machinery got busy with the UP assembly elections.

Secondly, heavy monsoon will also be another reason behind the rising number of cases among children. The authorities also claim that preventive measures like fogging to kill mosquitoes, de-silting, vaccination and chlorination were not done on time.

Ex-principal will be brought to Gorakhpur today

Gorakhpur SSP Satyarth Aniruddha Pankaj has said that a police team led by Charu Nigam is on its way to Kanpur to take the ex-principal and his wife into custody and added that they have enough evidence against the two.

A FIR was lodged against nine people in Lucknow's Hazratganj police station and the case was later shifted to Gorakhpur.

Gorakhpur police and Special Task Force together traced the nine accused – Mishra, Shukla, Dr Kafeel Khan and Dr Sathish, four clerical staff and the owner of Pushpa Sales, the company that supplied liquid oxygen to the hospital. The eight officials have been suspended.

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