Doctors have been urged to be careful when administering an antiseptic on tiny babies after health officials noted a number of cases of chemical burns in premature youngsters wiped down with the solution.
Experts at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) warned that a number of premature babies have suffered burns and other serious side effects after being disinfected with the chlorhexidine antiseptic.
It may have even contributed to the deaths of three babies, officials said. Medics have told to use the solution with care after experts noticed a pattern of burns.
Twenty eight newborns in the UK have suffered "serious side effects" after being wiped down with the antiseptic before a catheter was inserted, estimates suggest.
These side effects included chemical burns, which caused skin loss in some cases, or a skin condition called erythema.
Of the 29 cases, four of the babies died including three in the UK and one in the United States.
One baby died in the UK in 2005 and while the cause of death given was kidney failure, chlorhexidine is thought to be a possible contributing factor in the case.
A further two children died in 2010. In both cases chlorhexidine is thought to be a possible contributing factor, a MHRA spokesman said. Dr Martin Ward-Platt, a spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics, said: "Nobody's baby should come to harm because of this."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article