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)