Fourteen children have died at the Rangpur Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) in the past 48 hours due to cold-related diseases, doctors say.
Bangladesh’s northern districts are experiencing severe cold. The sun is hardly seen and people, particularly children are catching diseases like asthma, diarrhoea, and pneumonia due to extreme cold.RMCH director Dr Rejaul Karim has confirmed the deaths. The hospital’s paediatric ward registrar Dr Kamruzzaman said the deaths occurred in between Thursday midnight and Saturday noon. The children were undergoing treatment.
The most of the victims were infants. The eldest victim was two-year-old. “These children died from respiratory problems and pneumonia,” said Kamruzzaman. “Another 100 children are being treated. Most of them are suffering from respiratory problems and pneumonia.”
Only three of the children could be identified. Farid Ali of Mithapukur’s Pairaband Union lost his son within two hours of his birth. Thirteen-day old ‘Aditya’, son of Lalmonirhat’s Azizul Haq, one-year old ‘Sumi’, daughter of Selim Sardar of Haridebpur Union’s Paglipir village; and two-year-old Aklima Khatun, daughter of Nilphamari’s Abujar Rahman, died on Friday night.
Kamruzzaman could not immediately confirm names of everyone as he did not have the registration book with him.
Ranapur weather department’s Atiqur Rahman said the temperature had been between 12 and 15 degrees Celsius over the past three days.
He said the temperature might drop further.
The district’s relief and rehabilitation officer Abdus Salam said they had sought 40,000 blankets at the beginning of the month.
So far, 6,700 blankets had been received and distributed.-bdnews24.com
