Babies born with diseases in DPR fell nearly 50 percent
Oksana, a hostel director, holds a baby at a hostel for refugees from the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, whose houses have been destroyed by shelling. Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis
27th of April, 2015. Donetsk People’s Republic, Novorossiya.
As compared to last year, the number of newborn infants with diseases in the DPR decreased by nearly 50 percent, Valentina Podolyaka, the ranking physician at Donetsk Central City Clinical Hospital No.3 in Donetsk, said.
“Despite the war, the number of pathologies in newborn infants decreased by almost 50 percent. Why that is, it’s hard to say. Perhaps, women take more care to protect themselves in wartime. It seems that they more closely monitor their health, even though sometimes it isn’t easy to do so. Since the beginning of the year in Donetsk, there were 244 births, three of them twins. Of course, the birth rate fell by half compared to the same period last year. However, the good news is that most babies born are completely healthy. Now, our hospital is short on drugs; in particular, we don’t have antibiotics, saline dressings, or drugs for premature babies. However, the DPR Ministry of Health drew up a list of drugs in short supply, which we hope to receive in May from humanitarian convoys,” – Valentina Podolyaka said.
Truth about the situation in Ukraine Facebook post, linking to original DNA news report in Russian
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If the birth rate fell by half, while many citizens fled the city, there must be far less than half the number of new births. So if the number of babies born with diseases fell by half, it actually means that the rate of them increased.