Epidemic in Maternity Clinic Claims Babies

An epidemic, blamed on negligent health care, has gripped a maternity clinic in the southern Soviet Union, killing an undisclosed number of babies, the Communist Party daily Pravda reported Saturday.

Pravda said 60 babies have been stricken at a clinic in the city of Rostov-on-Don. “It was not possible to save some of the newborn babies,” it added, without saying what the disease was.

The paper said authorities in charge of the clinic had failed to observe minimum health requirements. Hot and cold water supplies often broke down, bed linen was not cleaned and milk was not sterilized, it said.