Edema Extraordinary Situation Declared in Rote Ndao
Thursday, 13 March, 2008 | 14:51 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Kupang: An extraordinary situation relating to Edema had been declared by the Municipa Government of Rota Ndao, in the Province of East Nusa Tenggara, after children aged under five died.

After the declaration, the government took hundreds of children aged under five, suspected to be suffering from Edema and lacking nutrients, to community heath centers and local hospitals.

Joel Yakob, Regional Secretary for the Rote Ndao Municipality, said that parents could not take their children to hospital due to their finance situations.
“Therefore, we take medical teams to edema potential areas,” Joel told Tempo via phone.

Edema and lack of nutrients have been caused by the food crisis following the harvest failure last year due to drought.

“A food crisis ignites edema,” said Joel.
To handle the situation, the Rote Ndao government has allocated Rp1 billion in funding.

According to reported data, in March this year there were 200 children suffering from a lack of nutrients plus 940 children aged under five.

Several hospitals have been prepared for handling patients.

“We are ready to treat 50 children aged under five suffering a lack of nutrients,” said Ba'a Delly Pasande, director of the regional public hospital,.

Maxi Topan, Head of the Health Problems Handling Section of the East Nusa Tenggara Provincial Health Office, said they were still waiting for Rp50 billion in funding from the Health Department.

Because this funding has not yet been delivered, the handling of the situation cannot be maximized.

According to Maxi, the number of children aged under five suffering from lack of nutrient in East Nusa Tenggara is 90,000 out of a total of 497,577 children aged under five.

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