An investigatory commission formed at the order of Health Minister Recep Akdag concluded its report yesterday on 27 infant deaths over a period of two weeks, stating that only one out of four babies died due to infection.
The report, the results of which were announced at a press conference held yesterday, says 25 percent of the 27 infant deaths at the Dr. Zekai Tahir Burak Women's Health and Teaching Hospital in Ankara were caused by various types of microorganisms. Furthermore, the report notes that the hospital had followed all safety procedures for the control of infections. The report highlighted that high-risk pregnancies, which often result in infant deaths, were also treated at the hospital.
"The causes of the deaths will become clear after further research is completed. Sometimes hospital infections are found much later; there is a slight probability of this. Yet, at this point we have no indication that this was the case," Odabas, head of the Health Ministry's treatment services department, told yesterday before the report was released.
Odabas stated that 27 deaths in two weeks is not that many in view of the total number of deliveries at the hospital -- which is claimed to deliver as many babies in a month as the average university hospital does in a year.
"A vast majority of the babies treated or born in that hospital during July had health problems. They are usually babies weighing less than 1,000 grams. Some of them were found to have infections; yet those infections cannot be called a 'hospital infection.' Each baby that we examined died due to his/her own infection; in other words, no infants infected each other. We can list the causes of infant deaths as follows: inadequate body weight of 1,000 grams or less in infants born prematurely. Sixteen infants died for this reason. Again, in relation to being premature, intestinal diseases, congenital heart diseases and other congenital disorders are also among the causes. Zekai Tahir is a hospital to which premature deliveries and problematic pregnancies are referred. Zekai Tahir hospital has the most number of beds, and it has the most hi-tech neonatal units. Therefore, such a number [27 infant deaths in two weeks] must not be considered something extraordinary. All infants died from various causes, and those causes were not related to conditions at the hospital."
TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES - ISTANBUL