KABUL (Pajhwok): Doctors say septicemia or blood infection in infants during pregnancy or delivery can be fatal and mothers should be fed well during pregnancy. Doctors recommend expecting mother should be fed well during pregnancy to prevent this infection and equipment needed for delivery should be sterilised so that germs do not enter the body of the infant. Dr Mohammad Arif Hassanzai, head of the internal medicine department at Indira Gandhi Children Hospital, told Pajhwok Afghan News that blood infections happened in two cases in an infant, either during pregnancy or delivery time.
He said in some cases, the infection was transmitted from the blood of mothers to the fetus. “But if a mother is not well fed, the fetus becomes weak and susceptible to disease, especially blood infection”. He explained: “In Afghanistan, most of the times childbirths take place at home, and the equipment used is not sterilized, it may contain germs.
.. the infection may enter the blood of the infant through unsterilized equipment when cutting the umbilical cord.
” Signs and symptoms in babies Dr Hassanzai named severe fever, discomfort, weakness, rapid breathing and jaundice as symptoms and said the infected infant could not suck breast milk.” Dr Hassanzai says: “Any infection in babies or infants can be much more dangerous compared to matured children because in these cases the immune system is not well formed and has not yet found the ability to deal with all kinds of infections so.
