Ten newborns have died after a fire broke out at a hospital in India’s Maharashtra at around 2 AM. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the deaths and called the incident a "heart-wrenching tragedy".  Seventeen babies were admitted at the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the four-storeyed hospital in Maharashtra's Bhandara district, about 900 km from the state capital Mumbai, at the time of incident. Seven of them, who were admitted to the inborn ward of the unit, were rescued by the fire brigade officials; those in the outbound ward couldn't be rescued. They are believed to have died due to suffocation.  In a tweet, PM Modi wrote: "Heart-wrenching tragedy in Bhandara, Maharashtra, where we have lost precious young lives. My thoughts are with all the bereaved families. I hope the injured recover as early as possible (sic)". All the infants were between a month and three months old, a doctor was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. "Ten children died in a fire that broke out at the SNCU of Bhandara District General Hospital at 2 am today. Seven children were rescued from the unit," District civil surgeon Pramod Khandate said. A nurse first noticed smoke coming out from the neonatal care unit, according to PTI, and she alerted the doctors.  "There were fire extinguishers and staff used them while trying to douse the fire. There was too much smoke," Dr Khandate said. While the cause of the fire is yet to be confirmed, a short circuit is believed to have set off the blaze. Patients admitted to other wards were shifted safely. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray spoke to Health Minister Rajesh Tope, and he has also ordered a probe into the incident. ""The chief Minister has ordered a probe in the entire incident. He spoke to the district collector and police superintendent and asked them to probe the fire," his office said in a statement.  Source: ND TV AH

The High Court on Monday issued a rule seeking explanation as to why a policy should not be formulated to restrict the gender detection of unborn babies. The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman issued the rule after hearing a writ petition. The rule also asked why the authorities concerned should not be directed to formulate a policy and why their failure to formulate the policy in this regard should not be declared illegal and beyond legal jurisdiction. Seven people, including secretaries to the Health Ministry, Women and Children Affairs Ministry, Social Welfare Ministry, director general of the Directorate General of Health Services, have been asked to respond within six weeks. Supreme Court lawyer Ishrat Hasan, who filed the writ petition on January 26, noted that detecting gender of unborn babies put mental pressure on the mothers and that this practice is legally prohibited in neighboring India. Source: UNB AH

More than 29 million children were born into conflict-affected areas last year, Unicef said on Friday. Throughout 2018, more than 1 in 5 babies globally spent their earliest moments in communities affected by the chaos of conflict, it said. “Every parent should be able to cherish their baby’s first moments, but for the millions of families living through conflict, the reality is far bleaker,” said Unicef Executive Director Henrietta Fore. She said in countries around the world, violent conflict has severely limited access to essential services for parents and their babies. “Millions of families lack access to nutritious food, safe water, sanitation, or a secure and healthy environment to grow and bond. Along with the immediate, obvious dangers, the long-term impacts of such a start in life are potentially catastrophic,” Fore said. When young children experience prolonged or repeated adverse and traumatic events, the brain’s stress management system is activated without relief causing ‘toxic stress’. Over time, stress chemicals break down existing neural connections and inhibit new ones from forming, leading to lasting consequences for children’s learning, behavior, and physical and mental health. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the landmark Convention on the Rights of the Child, in which governments pledged to protect and care for children affected by conflict. Currently, more countries are embroiled in internal or international conflict than at any other time in the past three decades, threatening the safety and wellbeing of millions of children, Unicef said. “Parents who interact with their babies can help shield them from the negative neurological effects of conflict. Yet, in times of conflict, parents are frequently overwhelmed,” said Fore. Some $200 billion a year is needed to achieve all the primary health goals that are required for quality universal health coverage for all, according to Dr Peter Salama, Executive Director in charge of Universal Healthcare targets at WHO. Welcoming positive changes in tackling child and maternal mortality globally since 2000, Salama insisted that many countries were in a position to achieve much more, without having to find new funding, according to UN News. “The biggest difference in terms of when we discuss financing between the MDG (Millennium Development Goals) era (2000-2015) and the SDG era, is the real acknowledgement that the money is there for many countries, they just have to spend it on the right things,” he said. “So we’re not turning to the donor community and saying, ‘Give us $200 billion.’ We’re turning to middle-income and higher-income and even some lower-income countries that are stable and saying, ‘Actually, if you choose the right things, you could meet these goals within your current budgets.’” ‘Staggering success’ in reducing deaths Since 2000, Dr Salama insisted, the overall story of maternal and child mortality had been “a staggering success that we don’t often see in global and health development”. He pointed to a 50 percent reduction in deaths in children under 15 – from 14.2 million in 2000 to 6.2 million deaths in 2018 - and a 35 percent reduction in maternal deaths over the same period. Source: UNB AH