DUSHANBE, April 28, Asia-Plus — 8,840 cases of acute respiratory infections (ARIs), with 5,997 of them being reported among children under 14, have been officially registered in Gorno Badakhshan over the past three months of this year, which is much fewer than in the same period of last year, Mahmadsharif Atoyev, a leading specialist with the Ministry of Health (MoH), said in an interview with Asia-Plus, referring to figures provided by the GBAO Center for Sanitary-Epidemiological Supervision.
According to him, reports released by some media over the past several weeks said that allegedly, there are any special factors contributing to spread of ARIs among children in Gorno Badakhshan.
“In January-March this year, infant mortality rate in Gorno Badakhshan stood at 19 per 1,000 live births, and under-five mortality rate stood at 5.8 per 1,000 live births,” Atoyev said, noting that the cause of death for infants under one year of age in seven cases was respiratory organs diseases, including “congenital pathology of respiratory organs in one case, pneumonia in three cases, flu in two cases and ARI in one case.”
On the under-five mortality rate, the MoH official said that the cause of death in two cases was craniocerebal pathology, in one case – heart valvular disease and in another case – acute intestinal infection.
