Eight children die of hunger in Banjarmasin

JAKARTA (JP): Eight severely undernourished children have died in a hospital in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, over the past six months, a doctor says.

Hasan Zain of Ulin Public Hospital said in Banjarmasin on Tuesday that dozens of children were admitted for various hunger- related diseases between May and December 1998, many of them already in a critical condition. He did not identify the children or their places of origin, Antara said.

"Most of the children came from very poor families," he said. He called on the public to be on the alert for signs of malnutrition, including marasmic kwashiorkor (as evidenced by distended bellies), calorific energy deficiency, diarrhea and wrinkling of the skin.

Experts have said that reports of the sporadic discovery of malnourished children were only the tip of an iceberg of health problems affecting children and infants due to the economic crisis. Experts have not only warned of deaths related to hunger, but also poorer quality of human resources in the future due to a loss of intelligence.

As of end of 1998, about half of Indonesia's 202 million population were estimated to be living below the poverty line because of the crisis. Millions among them cannot afford more than one meal a day.

In December, it was reported from Padang, West Sumatra, that an estimated 400,000 children under five years of age in the province were malnourished.

Head of provincial health office Rasyidah Rasyid said that during the previous ten months, a total of 48 children were hospitalized for malnutrition. Seven among them died.

"They could not be saved because of the serious infections they suffered," Rasyidah said. "Malnutrition and protein deficiency cause children under the age of five to be extremely vulnerable to infections."

The provincial administration allocated Rp 10 billion in emergency aid for the children and infants. Each child from a poor family is to receive Rp 750 (10 US$ cents) worth of supplementary food per day, while pregnant women were to get Rp 1,000 each.

Meanwhile, Hasan Zain said his hospital had in October received Rp 2.9 billion from the government's social safety net program, to improve patients' diet and for medical supplies. (28/swe)