I

ndonesia has attained significant improvement in terms of public nutrition, although challenges remain, with only nine cities and regencies recording no nutrition problems, recent data from various agencies show.

Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek said the country'€™s exclusive breastfeeding rate had risen to 65 percent from 42 percent in 2013 and 32 percent in 2007.

'€œI am very grateful to all who have been involved in increasing the number of breastfeeding mothers by 65 percent, as acknowledged by The Lancet. The world has acknowledged our success in promoting breastfeeding,'€ Nina said.

Low prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding for newborns has contributed to the malnutrition problem that is plaguing children in Indonesia, with more than 37.2 percent of children under the age of 5 chronically malnourished and experiencing stunted growth in 2013.

The lack of exclusive breastfeeding also contributes to the 29 percent mortality rate of children under 5 in Indonesia.

'€œWe know that breastfeeding protects the baby against different kinds of diseases, it helps to program the babies'€™ immune response and prevent from things like allergy,'€ said Susan Horton, one of the authors of the Lancet Breastfeeding Series.

The series is the first of its kind to evaluate global breastfeeding levels, trends and inequalities, as well as the short- and long-term benefits for both mother and child.

'€œIn our study, we calculated the importance of breast feeding; if 90 percent of babies receive breastfeeding until six months, we estimate an additional 800,000 children could survive [annually]. That'€™s a big component of the annual mortality of children [in the world],'€ Horton said.

Also, breastfeeding mothers heal faster after giving birth and have lower risk of breast and ovarian cancer, diabetes and depression.

'€œThe current [global] rates of breastfeeding help to protect 20,000 mothers, but if it is increased to 90 percent, another 20,000 deaths could be prevented,'€ said Horton.

The increase in the exclusive breastfeeding rate in Indonesia has been followed by a decrease in the stunting rate among children under 5 years old to 29 percent in 2015 from 37.2 percent in 2013.

However, challenges remain ahead. Malnutrition is still present in a majority of regencies and cities surveyed, with 404 suffering from severe and chronic nutrition problems and 20 having chronic nutrition problems. Furthermore, 63 regencies and cities have mildly chronic nutrition problems.

'€œOnly nine regencies and cities that have good nutrition, meaning that they don'€™t have a malnutrition problem or an obesity problem. This is a long way off our goal, because Indonesia contains 500 regencies and cities,'€ Nila said.

The nine regencies and cities are Ogan Komering Ulu regency in South Sumatra, Pagar Alam city in South Sumatra, Mukomuko regency in Bengkulu, Bengkulu city in Bengkulu, East Belitung regency in Bangka Belitung, Semarang city in Central Java, Tabanan city in Bali, Tomohon city in North Sulawesi and Depok city in West Java.

'€œWe are asking regional heads to pay more attention to health and to allocate 10 percent of their regional budgets to health. We may also be sterner, punishing those who fail to allocate 10 percent of their budgets to health or achieve health targets by reducing their budgets,'€ Nila said.