The cold wave sweeping Israel is threatening the lives of very young children.
Five infants, Jewish and Bedouin, ranging in age from 4 days to 1 year old, are being treated for severe hypothermia, or frostbite, at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
One Jewish infant is reported to have suffered brain damage because of the freeze. They were brought to the hospital because they became drowsy, stopped feeding and showed no response to stimuli.
Hospital officials said frostbite is not uncommon in the Negev. Between 15 and 20 children are admitted for treatment each winter.
According to a Soroka spokesman, 30 to 70 percent of frostbitten children in underdeveloped countries die. The death rate has dropped to 5 percent at the Beersheba hospital, since a children’s intensive care unit was established in 1983.
With the weather bureau forecasting another severe winter storm this week, with high winds and subzero temperatures, doctors are instructing parents keep their infants in rooms with temperatures of 72 degrees Fahrenheit and away from external walls.
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