Conference on diarrhea held

Conference on diarrhea held

YOGYAKARTA: More than 200 local and foreign health experts are
attending the three-day Eighth Asian Conference on Diarrheal
Diseases.

Sunarto, the conference president, said diarrhea was highly
prevalent in many countries, especially developing ones. In
Indonesia, diarrhea causes many deaths and much nutritional
deficiency.

The conference is being hosted by the Indonesian Society of
Pediatricians and the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with
World Health Organization, Unicef and the U.S.-based Basic
Support for Institutionalizing Child Survival (BASICS).

In a statement delivered by Director General for Communicable
Diseases Hadi M. Abednego, Minister of Health Sujudi said the
illness was among the top five killers here.

Eight percent of deaths at all ages are caused by diarrhea. It
is estimated the mortality rate due to diarrhea in children under
five is four per 1,000, Sujudi said.

Robert E. Black from the Department of International Health at
John Hopkins School of Public Health said developing countries
had been making good progress in combating the illness.

"However, they still have a long way to go, and much effort is
still needed," he told The Jakarta Post. (mun)