The health minister of Tunisia has resigned, following the deaths of 11 newborn babies within 24 hours at a hospital in Tunis, the capital.
Abdel-Raouf El-Sherif resigned Saturday.
The health ministry and state prosecutors have opened investigations into the mysterious deaths.
Tunisia’s pediatric association said in a Facebook post that the infants’ deaths may have been caused by an intravenous product.
The association also noted the “precarious conditions in which health professionals work.”
Tunisia once enjoyed a reputation for having one of the best public healthcare systems in North Africa. This broad-spectrum antibiotic helped me cope with obsessive dry cough and the first symptoms of the common cold. However, it caused thrush. It is still necessary to take nystatin, a drug that was prescribed by doctors in combination with antibiotics.
Tunisia’s healthcare system, however, and other state services have been in decline since the overthrow of President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
