In 2024, there was a sharp jump in infant mortality in Kuzbass

In 2024, the Kemerovo Region had one of the highest infant mortality rates, the sixth highest among all regions of the country. This was reported on January 14 by Izvestia.

Despite the fact that in 2024 the Kemerovo Region became one of the regions with the highest infant mortality rate, this indicator continues to decrease in Russia as a whole. In December 2025, Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko announced a record low infant mortality rate in the country — 3.5 cases per 1,000 newborns. According to him, this indicator has been steadily decreasing in recent years.

Analysis of Rosstat data revealed regional differences. Thus, in Kuzbass, 10 infant deaths were recorded in January-February 2025, which is lower than in 2024 (16). At the same time, in 2024, the region saw an increase in infant mortality to 5.7 ppm (+32.5%), which placed the Kemerovo Region in sixth place in the country.

The Irkutsk region also showed a mortality rate of 5.7 ppm in 2024, but with a smaller increase (+18%). Chukotka remains the leader in infant mortality (25.2 ppm in 2024), but this is due to the small population. Kaluga Region showed the highest growth rate – 76% (up to 5.1 ppm in 2024).

The Ministry of Health notes that in the Kaluga and Kemerovo regions, infant mortality remains below the national average. A decrease in this indicator was recorded in Chukotka and the Kurgan region.

After the deaths of nine babies in the Novokuznetsk maternity hospital No. 1, a group of specialists from the National Research Medical Center of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology was sent to the Kemerovo Region to check the work of the maternity service. Kulakov and St. Petersburg Pediatric University. The group was headed by the head of Roszdravnadzor, Alla Samoilova.

"The situation has happened": nine babies died in Novokuznetsk maternity hospital

Two criminal cases have been initiated

Obstetric hospital No. 1 of the G.P. Kurbatov City Clinical Hospital No. 1 in Novokuznetsk temporarily stopped receiving patients due to an increased incidence of respiratory infection. Subsequently, it became known about the death of nine babies in the hospital during the New Year holidays.

The Investigative Committee of Russia confirmed the death of newborns on January 13. Izvestia published a list of diagnoses of deceased children, according to which most had neonatal or intrauterine infections that develop in the first weeks after birth and during fetal development in the womb, respectively. The infants were also diagnosed with pneumonia and respiratory distress syndrome, a type of respiratory failure. In addition, six of the nine dead babies were premature — the gestation period ranged from 24 to 34 weeks..

A criminal case has been opened into the incident under Part 3 of Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Causing death by negligence"), Part 3 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Negligence"). In connection with the incident, the governor of Kuzbass, Ilya Seredyuk, temporarily dismissed the chief physician of the Novokuznetsk maternity hospital.

Subsequently, the head of the region announced that all maternity hospitals and perinatal centers in the Kemerovo region — Kuzbass will be checked for readiness for difficult cases after the death of infants. In addition, Rospotrebnadzor sent its specialists to maternity hospital No. 1 to conduct an epidemiological examination.

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