kolkata: Two children died at Dr BC Roy Hospital on Monday night following pneumonia. One of the victims was a one-and-a-half-year-old girl from the Kadambagachi area of Barasat.
She was under treatment at the hospital for the past eight days. She was admitted to the hospital with fever and respiratory distress.
In a separate incident, a 26-day-old infant from Haroa in North 24-Parganas died at the same hospital on Monday night. He had been undergoing treatment at SNCU for the past three weeks.
State government on Monday published a report on acute respiratory infection (ARI) cases in children and claimed that the number of new admissions in hospitals has been going down.
The state government has already formed an 8-member task force with Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi as its chairman to supervise the works carried out to control adenovirus and also to monitor the treatment of the affected people.
The task force will meet at regular intervals and supervise the arrangements for the treatment of affected persons in different hospitals and other aspects related to the control of the disease. The latest data published by the state government said that around 12,343 acute respiratory infection cases have been reported in children in the last two-and-a-half months.
To date, 19 deaths have been reported due to adenovirus infection.
There are more than 5000 beds in 121 hospitals in the state having facilities for the management of paediatric acute respiratory infection (ARI) cases with 600 paediatricians in dedicated services.