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80 babies die in a week at Kenyatta National Hospital, expert | PRESS REVIEW

7th May, 2019

A past investigation by The Standard established that mortality rate is higher among premature babies.

The newborns have to be put in incubators until they attain maturity and gain the requisite weight.

Premature babies — those born before attaining 37 weeks — should be kept alone in incubator units.

But because of congestion and overstretched facilities, The Standard at the time found up to five crammed in one unit, exposing them to cross-infections and consequently death.   

At the time of the investigation in November last year, there were seven fresh admissions in the neonatal ward where 100 infants were listed as “very sick.”

Three died within 24 hours, but medics we interviewed said it had been a good week considering there was minimal congestion.

“Here the mortality rate is 50 per cent. It is very bad,” a medic said at the time.

Another confided that putting the premature babies in the same incubator raised chances of administering medication to the wrong infant.

Malaria, meningitis, HIV and pulmonary tuberculosis were among the medical conditions the premature newborns had presented.

According to KNH’s director for clinical services at that time, Peter Masinde, the hospital’s facilities were stretched by referrals from lower-level facilities.

Dr Masinde then said that many of the babies’ lives could be saved had the mothers been brought in earlier or managed better before referral.

“We have minimal space but we cannot turn away any mother and their babies who have been referred to us irrespective of their state,” he said, citing cross-infection as the main cause of death.

He then explained that most hospitals that refer the cases to KNH lacked specialised equipment and staff to manage preterm babies.

 

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