Screening of newborn birth defects to be carried out at 27 hospitals

The Health Ministry says 21 babies born in every 1,000 die within one month of birth in Nepal. The country has to reduce neonatal deaths to 12 by 2030 to meet its SDG target.

At Patan Hospital two weeks ago, an unborn baby of 20 weeks was diagnosed with cystic hygroma, a birth defect that usually appears as a sac-like structure in the head and neck area of an infant.