Malnourished children hospitalized
Malnourished children hospitalized
Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang
As the East Nusa Tenggara provincial administration declared the
malnutrition problem in the region to be an emergency on Tuesday,
two malnourished children were still battling to survive in the
hospital.
On Tuesday, the two children -- 10-month-old Serly Yohana Raha
and 13-year-old Deby Henukh -- were receiving treatment at the WZ
Johanis Hospital in Kupang. The two come from poor families with
incomes of less than Rp 100,000 (US$11) a month.
According to Welly Raha, Serly's mother, her daughter rarely
ate nutritious food. Every day, the baby consumed little else
besides porridge, with none of the milk or nutrition supplements
that a baby required.
Deby's story was similar. Every day, the junior high school
student ate nothing more than rice or boiled corn.
Hendrik Henukh, Deby's father, said that the family rarely
consumed fish or vegetables.
The hospital director, Hein Mooy, confirmed that the two
children were suffering from malnutrition, as well as
tuberculosis.
"The two of them have been receiving treatment for more than a
week. Currently, the doctors are doing their best to ensure their
recovery by providing them with nutritious food. If we turn out
to have been too late, they might end up with advanced
malnutrition," Hein said.
Spokesman for East Nusa Tenggara's governor, Umbu Saga
Anakaka, announced that comprehensive measures, including free
medical treatment for the poor, would be introduced to deal with
the problem.
"Since cases of malnutrition have occurred in more than one
regency, the government had decided to declare an emergency,"
Umbu said on Tuesday.
He said that so far 45 children in six regencies had tested
positively for advanced malnutrition, locally known as busung
lapar, while 33,910 were suffering from malnutrition and 8,218
others from poor nutrition.
These figures, he said, could increase following a food and
water crisis in the province following a long drought.
He said some of the malnourished people were receiving
treatment in hospitals while the rest of them, due to financial
constraints, could not do much.
A team from the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Public
Welfare is set to arrive soon in Kupang to conduct surveys in the
affected regencies. The findings of the surveys would then be
brought before a coordinating meeting to deal with the food
crisis and malnutrition problem.
The cases of malnutrition in East Nusa Tenggara came to the
fore after the neighboring province of West Nusa Tenggara
declared a malnutrition emergency last week after eight children
under the age of five died.
As of Saturday last week, 359 cases of malnourished children
had been reported across West Nusa Tenggara, mostly in West and
East Lombok regencies.