“As of 2009, 43 percent of Indonesia’s citizens were dwelling in urban areas, and that figure is predicted to increase to 60 percent by 2025,” Tjandra Yoga, the Health Ministry’s director general of disease control and environmental health, said in Jakarta on Monday.

He said such a high population density would place a heavy burden on urban resources that were already overstretched today in many of the nation’s cities.

The WHO has declared the theme of the 2010 World Health Day, which falls on April 7, “Urbanization and Health: Urban Health Matters”. According to Samlee Plianbangchang, the regional director for WHO’s regional office for Southeast Asia, the agency regards urbanization as an urgent public health concern.

“The urban setting influences health outcomes, both positively and negatively. In terms of health, urbanization presents challenges as well as opportunities,” his written statement said.

Bambang Sarjono from the ministry’s Directorate General of Community’s Health Development said the main concerns of urban development were poverty, environment, industrialization, sociocultural and transportation.

Problems afflicting the health sector include poor distribution of supplies and poor quality and access to healthcare for the poor, Bambang said.

He said the problems were exacerbated by a fundamental lack of communication between private healthcare providers and community health centers in urban areas.

“The health centers are sometimes unaware that a private healthcare provider is treating a patient for dengue fever, for example, because the private provider failed to report the case,” he said.

Last year there were 11.91 million poor residents in urban areas in the country, according to data from the Central Statistics Agency.

That number accounted for almost 11 percent of all residents in the country’s urban areas.

Tjandra said urban “culture” was to blame for many degenerative diseases common among city dwellers, such as stress and malnutrition.

“Unhealthy food, or junk food, includes anything produced by major fast-food chains, as well as fried food [sold on streets],” he said.

According to Tjandra, the most deadly diseases among urban dwellers were degenerative diseases, including stroke, hypertension and diabetes.

A 2007 study by Basic Health Research showed that 10.2 percent of urban residents suffered from
diabetes.

The research also found that traffic accidents were the biggest cause of death among 15-44-year-olds, accounting for 13.4 percent of all deaths in the group, followed by tuberculosis with 10.5 percent and liver-related diseases, which accounted for 8.8 percent.

According to the WHO, a swelling in the numbers of motorcyclists in city areas is putting pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists themselves at greater risk.

In most countries in Southeast Asia, motorcycles and motorized three-wheel vehicles make up more than 60 percent of registered vehicles. (dis)

JP/IRMA

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