Newspaper Union – Tunisia – catastrophe – infant mortality – overthrow – responsible

Sassi Jbeil, Agencies (Tunisia)

The Tunisian Ministry of Health announced Friday the dismissal of two directors after the death of a 17-year-old boy in a hospital in the capital, in an incident that shook Tunisia and is currently the subject of A judicial inquiry. The Ministry announced the dismissal of the Director of Public Health, Nabiha Borsali, the Director General of the Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Hospital and the Director General of the National Lab Laboratory Drug Control, and announced new appointments. Former Health Minister Abdel Raouf Sharif announced his resignation last Saturday after the deaths of 11 babies in the seventh and eighth of this month, before the death toll rose to 17, announced on Friday. President of the Tunisian Association of Victims of Medical Error, Saber Ben Ammar.
The judiciary and a government inquiry commission are investigating the causes of infant mortality, while the Ministry of Health suspects a vaccine given to infants before they die. The ministry explained that medical samples are being analyzed in three laboratories of the obstetrics center to determine the causes of death and that the results will be published as soon as they appear.
The incident caused widespread shock and anger among Tunisians, the latest in a series of errors and corruption that has hit the public health sector for years. On the other hand, medical sources in the Tunisian state of Kasserine yesterday announced the spread of the measles virus to alarming and dangerous levels, resulting in the death of six cases and injured more than 600 people. Tunisian radio quoted medical sources at the Kasserine Regional Hospital and the Regional Department of Health in the state of death of six cases of children and infants since the beginning of January by the virus measles.
According to the same source, the number of victims has accelerated to reach, on Thursday, 620 people infected with the virus, mainly children and infants. Medical sources attributed the epidemic to the lack of vaccination against the disease, a frequent occurrence especially in rural areas of Kasserine. According to media reports, the families of the victims in Kasserine said that the sudden and rapid outbreak of the disease was due to the appearance of the virus through the intermediary of a patient from the Algerian territory neighbour.