DOH: Infant deaths at Rizal hospital traced to moms

Health officials on Monday reported that most of the infants who succumbed to neonatal sepsis at the Rizal Medical Center (RMC) contracted the disease through mother-to-child transmissions and not from unsanitary medical equipment. After four days of investigation, the National Epidemiology Center (NEC) and a fact-finding team from the Department of Health (DOH) noted a "highly fatal" outbreak at the RMC which caused 15 cases of infection and nine deaths on October 4. "The newborns got ill with difficulty of breathing, poor suck and fever within 90 hours after delivery. This suggests that mother-to-child transmission has occurred even before the delivery," said a DOH statement. The DOH said there was only a "remote" possibility that power outages caused by Typhoon Milenyo late last month triggered environmental infections. "Both the FFC (fact-finding committee) and NEC were unable to link contaminated hospital equipment to the outbreak. The short power interruption after Typhoon Milenyo appears to be unrelated too," it said. As this developed, however, the DOH said hospital officials may still face administrative charges because cases of neonatal sepsis at the RMC have been rising. "They (RMC officials) are not totally off the hook because there is an increasing number of neonatal sepsis cases in that hospital according to our records. All of these strongly point to some degree of negligence perhaps," said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. The DOH found that the mortality rate of newborn sepsis at the RMC reached an "alarming" level and caregivers "should have alerted hospital officials to impose corrective actions." "The hospital staff may have fallen short to exercise highest standard of care to prevent the outbreak even if this was not hospital-acquired," the DOH said. NEC chief Dr. Eric Tayag noted that most of the mothers who lost their babies at the RMC because of the disease had irregular prenatal checkups and did not have previous records with the hospital. RMC officials now have three days to respond to the findings of the DOH-NEC investigating teams. A total of 83 cases of neonatal sepsis were reported at the RMC in 2005. Out of this number, 45 are infants who succumbed to the disease. This year's figures were more alarming. The DOH noted 127 cases including 69 deaths. Out of the 15 cases of neonatal sepsis, 11 could be purportedly attributed to "maternal risk factors." Unborn babies may contract diseases even before birth if the mother was experiencing fever, urinary and upper respiratory tract infection, already had multiple births or is undergoing medication. Tayag advised expectant mothers to undergo prenatal checkups so early intervention can still be undertaken to ensure that the baby would be healthy upon birth.-GMANews.TV