Infant dies after being branded with hot iron in Nuapada

Nuapada: Superstition continues to claim lives of children in the state as a two-and-half-year-old boy died at Karachula village in Dharambandha in the district on Sunday after being branded with hot iron to cure him of fever.

The boy, identified as the son of Laxmichandra Shabara, succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment at the Nuapada hospital. Family members had taken him to a quack after his fever did not recede for few days. As a cure the quack branded the child with hot iron.

But the infant's condition became critical following which the family members admitted him to the Nuapada hospital where he died today.