Authorities investigate death of newborns
Health authorities in south China are investigating online allegations that several newborn babies have died due to an outbreak of infection in a local hospital.
A team has been sent to the Southern Medical University’s Shunde Hospital in Shunde, Guangdong Province, to investigate, Foshan City health bureau said on its website on Thursday.
A story was posted on the WeChat account of Wu Changqi on April 23, claiming that at least three newborns had died at, or after being transferred from, the hospital. More infants, he claimed, were transferred away after the incidents, suggesting a possible outbreak of infection, thepaper.cn reported.
The post was viewed over 10,000 times before it was taken down the next day.
On Wednesday, Wu said on his WeChat account that he deleted the post because it had attracted wide attention and triggered an investigation, which was his intention. He said he looks forward to an “open, reasonable and credible” explanation.
Liang, a Shunde Hospital official, confirmed to thepaper.cn that one newborn had died during treatment and two others had passed away after leaving the hospital, but denied any misconduct.
“We did not find any evidence of serious infection in the hospital,” Liang told the news portal, but admitted that an unspecified number of newborns had been transferred away because the hospital is due to be redecorated.