For the State Government, which was thoroughly wedged in a political storm over serial infant deaths at Cuttack Sishu Bhavan this monsoon, here is some news of relief at last as the newborn deaths in State this fiscal year till October have recorded a big drop of 32 per cent. However, the enormity is still acute as the State records over one infant death every hour.
The State has recorded over 6,000 infant deaths for the period April - October this year against around 8,900 during April-October last year. However, share of newborn deaths owing to birth related causes like sepsis has shown a spike this year, which is a cause of concern for the Health Department.
Similarly, more newborns died this year of birth asphyxia. Though low Birth Weight (lBW) still is the single-most biggest birth-related killer among infants in State, its share has shown a fall of over 2 per cent vis-a-vis last year.
It was observed that while nearly half of infants below 1-month died due to diseases other than sepsis, asphyxia and lBW, around 80 per cent deaths of infants below 1-year were due to afflictions other than pneumonia, diarrhoea, fever and measles.
Moreover, an analysis brings to fore the fact that over 53 per cent of infant deaths were neither due to sepsis, asphyxia, low Birth Weight (lBW) nor due to pneumonia, diarrhoea, fever and measles. And, Unicef officials here attribute these deaths to malaria, anaemia and malnutrition. This shows how poor nutrition in Odisha is playing havoc with the infant mortality rate in State.
Water-borne disease diarrhoea still affects around 64 per cent of infants below 1-year age, but the State was able to limit the mortalities to mere three in thousand infant deaths. Though measles affects only four in every thousand newborns, despite a preventable disease if vaccinated, it kills one of the four affected. As pneumonia still accounts for over 5 per cent of total infant deaths, it is worth watching as what would be its toll during the coming winter. Moreover, over 34 per cent of children in age-group of 0-5 years were affected by malaria in the State.
Around 60-70 per cent infant mortalities were reported by around 14 districts only. Mayurbhanj tops the chart followed by Balangir and Koraput. Among coastal districts, Baleswar tops the chart. The analysis shows that Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Nabarangpur, Balangir and Phulbani also share the high burden of infant deaths in State. Incidentally, the areas are malaria endemic and also have a poor socio-economic-nutrition profile.
However, the load of infant deaths and the reason behind are not uniform across the State, suggests the data. It has been observed that lBW is the dominant factor behind infant deaths in Balangir and Koraput. Asphyxia and sepsis were also the top causes behind infant deaths in both coastal and interior Odisha. Nearly three in every five children in the age-group of 0-5 years in Koraput are afflicted by malaria. Koraput also accounts for maximum infant deaths due to pneumonia in State. However, Ganjam and Balangir follow Koraput closely as far as malaria afflicted newborns are concerned.