Six children die from malnutrition in NTT
Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang, | Wed, 09/15/2010 10:02 AM
Six children under the age of five have died from malnutrition in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province in the last eight months, mostly due to a lack of intervention by medical teams, according to a government official.
Some 6,000 children under five years of age suffer from malnutrition in NTT.
Among the six who died were twins Febiyanti Nabu and Feniyanti Nabu, 11 months; and Ardi Liufeto, 16 months, all from South Timor Tengah regency.
The other three were from South West Sumba regency and Kupang municipality.
NTT Health Agency head Stef Bria Seran said most children in the province suffered from minor malnutrition, which would take between three and six months to recover from through physical rehabilitation and proper food intake.
“Most of the children who suffer from malnutrition not involving a clinical disorder are recovering,” he said in Kupang on Monday.
Of the 21 regencies and municipalities in the province, Stef said, Kupang regency has 1,431 cases of malnutrition — the highest in the region followed by South Timor Tengah regency with 500 cases. The province is home to some 500,000 children under five years of age.
He said some measures had been taken to help eradicate malnutrition in the province.
Among those measures, he said, was distributing nutritious food at integrated service posts and a program ensuring that mothers fed their newborn babies exclusively breast milk for the first six months.
“The measure is effective as shown by the fact that of some 6,000 breast feeding mothers, 75 percent have given their babies only breast milk,” he said.
Last year the province recorded 14 cases of babies dying from malnutrition. The cases were recorded in Kupang municipality and regency, East Sumba regency, East Flores regency and North Timor Tengah regency.
In that year, there were 7,065 cases of malnutrition not involving clinical disorder and 48,436 cases of minor malnutrition. The number of malnutrition cases involving a clinical disorder was 49, comprising 30 cases of marasmus, nine cases of kwashiorkor and 10 cases of marasmus-kwashiorkor.
