An unidentified virus has resulted in the deaths of five children in Ward 1 of the Children’s Section at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital in Galle over the last few days.
According to hospital sources, several more children are currently suffering in the ward.
The doctors are not sure whether the children caught the virus while in the ward or it is as a result of any other infection from a disease they were already suffering from.
When the Daily News contacted the Galle Karapitiya Teaching Hospital Director, Dr. Jayampathy Senanayake, he confirmed the deaths of the five children. “At first we thought it was a bacterial infection, but now we have confirmed that it is a viral infection. We have however not been able to identify what kind of a virus this is or put a name to it”, he said.
A special discussion had taken place at the hospital yesterday with regard to the virus and steps have been taken to send the blood samples of the children to Colombo for further testing.
Dr. Senanayake also confirmed that there were other children infected with the same virus in the ward, “I cannot tell you much now. We are conducting investigations into this,” he added.
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