Kids crowd hospital in Nilphamari

Children, affected by pneumonia and other cold-related diseases, crowd the children's ward of Nilphamari Sadar Hospital. Photo: Star

Children are increasingly getting attacked by pneumonia and other respiratory diseases as a cold spell has been sweeping the district for over a week.
Affected children and their mothers are crowding the floor and corridor of the children's ward at Sadar Hospital.
As the children's ward at the hospital is not equipped with sufficient beds, the hospital authorities are treating 3-4 affected children in each bed, leaving mothers either to sleep by turn or sit at the edge of bed at night.
Senior staff nurse Fahima Begum, in charge of the children's ward, told this correspondent yesterday that a two-day-old child named Babu, son of one Abu Zafar of Araji Kanialkhata village in Sadar upazila, died of pneumonia on the night of January 11.
She also informed that 373 children, most of them affected by pneumonia, were treated at the children's ward in the last 10 days. As per hospital record, 1136 more pneumonia-infected children were treated at the outdoor section during the period.