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