Second Kanlaon baby evacuee dies

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Another baby who had been staying in an evacuation center in La Castellana, Negros Occidental has died while being treated in a hospital for respiratory diseases.

The fatality was the second infant to die among residents displaced by the eruption of Kanlaon Volcano in December.

Girlie Pinongan, chief of the provincial health office, said the nine-month-old baby had been suffering from cough and intermittent fever for several days before she was referred to a doctor.

Pinongan said the municipal health office of La Castellana referred the baby to the Ignacio Lacson Arroyo Memorial District Hospital in Isabela town after observing that the patient was dehydrated.

She said the baby was admitted to the hospital on Jan. 25 and died on the same day of pneumonia.

Last month, a nine-month-old baby boy in the evacuation center died of cardiopulmonary arrest due to “acute gastroenteritis with severe dehydration.”