BR Sick Babies Nunavut – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Oct 19, 2016 

New research shows newborn babies in some Arctic regions have the highest rates of serious lung infections ever recorded in medical literature.

A paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says cases involving Inuit infants in northern Quebec and western Nunavut are so numerous, it would be cheaper to treat all infants with a preventative medicine than wait until they get sick.

In Nunavut’s westernmost region, more than 40 per cent of all babies born in 2009 were later admitted to hospital with lung infections — while in the area around western Hudson Bay, the figure was 24 per cent.

And in Nunavik, or Arctic Quebec, nearly half of all newborns were hospitalized.

Overall, lung infections for newborns just months old were 40 times southern rates.

In the worst-afflicted areas, up to one in every 30 children born ends up in intensive care and struggling to breathe.

The reasons are familiar — overcrowded homes, high exposure to cigarette smoke and poor nutrition.

—

(The Canadian Press)

INDEX: NATIONAL