A five-month-old baby of Jalpaiguri suffering from respiratory distress has died at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH).

Doctors said she had been admitted in the paediatric intensive care unit with ventilation support on 9 March. They said her condition started deteriorating on Friday. She died on Saturday.

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Sources said the cause of her death was severe pneumonia and sepsis shock. Another child is on ventilation support in the NBMCH, it is learnt.

The testing of samples either at the NBMCH or at the School of Tropical Medicine (STM) in Kolkata, is, meanwhile, yet to be started here, even though such a decision had been taken earlier.

According to NBMCH superintendent Dr Sanjay Mallik, seven children suffering from acute respiratory infection (ARI) had been admitted in the paediatric ward.

The swab samples of the child had been sent to the microbiology department.

“A decision will be taken on whether the tests will be carried out at the virus research and diagnostic laboratory or will be sent to the STM to find out what virus had triggered her disease,” a source said.

It may be mentioned here that a newborn baby of Jalpaiguri district suffering from ARI had died in the NBMCH on 11 March. The health department had decided to send select samples of children suffering from ARI to the STM to see whether they were suffering from respiratory infection caused by any virus.

The NBMCH authorities have also invited an e-tender recently again to conduct the respiratory virus panel test at the virus research and diagnostic laboratory of the microbiology department at the NBMCH. However, no progress has been made in any of the matters.