CHINA / SOCIETY
Postnatal care centers must guard against contagious diseases after 9 newborns infected with pneumonia
Published: Feb 07, 2021 08:12 PM

Photo: screenshot from the care center



A media report revealed that at least nine newborns at a care center in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning Province were diagnosed with pneumonia, a finding that prompted experts to call for evaluating risks and plugging loopholes in postnatal care centers against contagious diseases.

The Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday that nine newborns from a care center were confirmed to have become infected with pneumonia at a local hospital in Shenyang. One of the babies was discharged from the hospital after proper medical treatment.

The center, named Xinxiangyueshiguang, has been closed, according to the market watchdog of Huanggu district of Shenyang. In the wake of the incident, the Huanggu district government conducted a comprehensive examination of all postnatal care centers in the region, aiming to plug similar loopholes, the Xinhua report said.

The Shenyang Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that the newborns were infected with a respiratory syncytial virus. How they got infected has not been revealed yet.

The clustered pneumonia infections in the center exposed loopholes, including the lack of a standard management system and low-quality disinfection, as well as insufficient capabilities in medical treatment, which can make postnatal care centers vulnerable to contagious diseases.  

The Global Times learned that some parents of the infected newborns accused the center of concealing the facts, when they clearly knew an infection had occurred and did not provide professional advice after finding some babies had pneumonia symptoms, leading to further infections among other children. 

The Huanggu District Consumer's Association said on Sunday the care center had reached an initial agreement with the parents of infected newborns over compensation after catching the virus at the institute.

Wang Peiyu, a deputy head of Peking University's School of Public Health, told the Global Times on Sunday that newborns are a high-risk group in terms of contagious diseases. Postnatal care centers could be vulnerable to hygiene risks because some institutes are built by people without medical backgrounds and lack the ability to detect diseases. 

He called the case in Shenyang an individual case and a lesson for postnatal care centers to take stricter measures against any contagious diseases.

Some industry observers said that respiratory syncytial virus isn't categorized as an infectious disease, but it is also contagious to a certain extent. Centralized management within the postnatal care center could increase the risks of newborns being crossed infected, and poor disinfection also could result in infections, they said.