Three Children Aged Under Five with Edema Die
Thursday, 06 March, 2008 | 18:24 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Kupang: At least five people from poor families in Rote Ndao regency, Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) have died because of edema.

Three of the dead of them were under five years old, while the others were 13 and 15 years old.

Maxi Taopan, Head of Section for Health Problem Management from the NTT Provincial Health Office, said today (6/3) that the central government has not provided funding anymore for nutrition problems in NTT since 2007.

According to him, this has worsened the nutrition problem.

The provincial government has proposed a budget of Rp56 billion to deal with this problem.

Taopan said he hoped that the Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare would respond to the proposal soon, as it was submitted back in 2007.

The funding will be used for nutritious food supply, Health Care Posts (Posyandu) revitalization, and operational expense of Posyandu' staff.

Jonathan Lenggu, Head of the Local Health Office, said that those who died with edema, had complication with other diseases including diarrhea and tuberculosis.

“They were physically weak, and could be contagious”, he said.

According to Lenggu, most of them came from poor families with a less hygienic life style.

Furthermore, the limited funding from local government's budget at the regency, provincial and central levels had influenced nutrition management in the area.

The provincial health department of NTT stated that out of 497,000 children under five, 90,000 had nutritional problems.

And of these, 12,000 are also suffering from clinical anomalies.

Jems de Fortuna