DADU: One more child died from meningitis and 20 facing different health issues were admitted to the paediatric ward of the Civil Hospital Dadu on Sunday, Dawn has learnt.

This is the sixth death of an infant over the past seven days at the hospital, sources have said.

When Dawn visited the child ward of the Civil Hospital Dadu on Sunday, there was not a single doctor available at this ward and there were sanitation problems and lack of other basic health-care facilities.

Sources said that four doctors had been appointed at the paediatric ward of the Civil Hospital Dadu; but no one was present at the healthcare facility on Sunday.

The people accompanying patients there complained to Dawn about the problems, lack of health-care facilities and shortage of medicine at the civil hospital.

The recent deaths of children have increased concerns about provision of health-care facilities at the hospital.

Three months old Komal, a daughter of Mukhtiar Mashori, resident of Chhano Shahabad Mohalla, died at the child ward while 20 children suffering from various diseases were admitted to the hospital on Sunday.

However, a portion of the same building of the child ward has been handed over to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to look after child patients facing nutrition issues.

Doctors and other staff were performing their duties properly at this facility during the visit.

The child patients at the Nutrition Stabilization Centre facing nutrition issues were being administered with dietary supplements, including milk and other items, after every two hours according to WHO standards, a child specialist said.

The child specialist, working with WHO at the Nutrition Stabilization Centre, Dr Allah Bux Korejo, said that he had also started seeing patients at the child ward of the hospital in addition on Sunday.

Speaking to Dawn about the death of Komal, Dr Allah Bux Korejo said that she was brought to the child ward of the civil hospital in a serious condition and was under treatment since past two days.

He said Komal died due to meningitis. He said that 20 more children were brought to the hospital from various parts of Dadu district.

He said that due to cold most of the children were facing chest problems and other diseases.

He said that WHO had established the nutrition stabilisation centre at the Civil Hospital Dadu where children facing nutrition problems were treated.

He said that three children facing nutrition problems were currently under treatment at this centre.

He said that 176 children facing nutrition issues had been treated over the past six months at the nutrition stabilisation centre.

Sharing information about the three under-treatment children at the centre, he said four-year-old Asif, son of Gul Sher Khoso, a resident of Bubak Town in Sehwan, weighed six kilos at the age of four which was equal to six months child weight.

He said that the child was facing nutrition problems and his weight should be over 12kg.

He said that he was admitted 15 days ago at the WHO centre and was improving and now his weight reached eight kilo in 15 days.

About 18-months old Karishma, a daughter of Reshma Khoso, a resident of Bubak town, he said that her weight was also six kilograms and she was facing nutrition problems.

“She has three grams of HB haemoglobin, but it should be 12 to 14 grams,” the doctor said.

He showed another patient, Humeran, aged two years, a daughter of Hakim Ali Jamali, a resident of Loond village of Dadu taluka.

Doctor Allah Bux said this child weighed three kilos and it was equal to the weight of a newborn baby.

He said that WHO team was trying to improve health condition of these children at this centre.

He said that WHO, UNICIEF, the World Food Programme and the Sindh government were supporting efforts for improving children’s health and resolving their nutrition issues at the centre.

However, at the paediatric ward of the civil hospital things were in pretty bad shape.

There were complaints about none supply of medicines at the child ward and other wards of the hospital.

During the visit at the child ward of civil hospital, Shahzadi Panhwar, a resident of Mazdoorabad Mohalla of Dadu town, complained that she had brought her one-and-a-half-month-old son Anis to the hospital, but he was not receiving proper treatment.

She said that her son was facing asthma and he was in very serious condition.

She said that she was waiting for a check-up of her son since past two days and had returned back without seeing a doctor.

Another woman, Karima Mallah, resident of Piaro Goth, complained that she had admitted her daughter Jameela suffering from gastroenteritis, but she was also purchasing medicines, including drips and injections, from outside drugstores.

The in-charge of the child ward at the Civil Hospital Dadu, Dr Abdul Razak Junejo, told Dawn on the telephone that the large numbers of children coming to the hospital were suffering from cold and other cold-weather related diseases.

He claimed that only three children out of the six children had died in the past seven days in the child ward of the hospital.