18,000 children malnourished

18,000 children malnourished

TANGERANG: At least 18,000 of 280,000 children under two years
old, or 6.5 percent, in Tangerang, Banten are suffering from
malnutrition, a local health official says.

The head of the family health department at the Tangerang
Health Agency, Shirley, said on Thursday that the number was
slightly lower than the 19,400 cases last year.

"It means that we have managed to curb the number of
malnutrition cases," she said, adding that the administration had
since 2003 been distributing food supplements for children under
two-years-old.

Shirley revealed that the average number of malnutrition cases
in developing countries reached up to 30 percent of the total
number of infants. -- JP