The heatwave sweeping across Hyderabad-Karnataka in the last fortnight has hit newborns the hardest.
While there have been two infant deaths in Raichur, hospitals across the district are seeing more infants being admitted with various ailments caused by acute dehydration.
Dr. Prakash H.K., a paediatrician at Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), said that the two infants, brought to the teaching hospital at very late stage, died of kidney failure caused by dehydration and resultant rise of serum creatinine level in the blood. In the teaching hospital attached to RIMS alone, around 50 newborns are being treated every day. RIMS authorities say the number of infants admitted for dehydration-related ailments far outnumber that of last year.
“A newborn should normally urinate six to seven times in 24 hours. For this to happen, nursing mother must sufficiently take fluids and nutritious food and breast-feed her baby once every two hours. If the place where the newborn and nursing mother stay is not cool, the soft-skinned infant does not breastfeed. This leads to dehydration, fever, jaundice and even damaged kidneys and brain if not taken to hospital early,” said Dr. Nagaraj Javali, HoD of paediatrics at RIMS.
Dr. Shivappa Malipatil, a leading paediatrician, says most newborns suffering from dehydration-caused ailments are from economically weaker and socio-culturally backward sections, who are not able to afford air conditioners, coolers or at least fans for providing relatively cooler spaces for their babies.
Tin-roof sheds
“Normally economically weaker sections live in tin-roofed sheds, which are hotter than other homes and don’t have proper ventilation. These people bring their babies with complaints of excessive crying, not breastfeeding and fever, which are definitely caused by dehydration. Unfortunately, most women who got married in the last marriage season gave birth to babies in this harsh summer,” he said.
When The Hindu visited his hospital, he was treating a 12-day-old baby suffering from dehydration and resultant acute renal failure. Serum creatinine level in the baby was 6.2 mg/dl against the normal range of less than 1.4 mg/dl and blood urea was 252 mg/dl against normal range of 10-45 mg/dl. “If the problem persists, it may lead to multi-organ failure including brain haemorrhage,” he said.
