Malnutrition commonplace in a rice surplus province

Malnutrition commonplace in a rice surplus province

Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

Cases of child malnutrition are again surfacing in West Nusa
Tenggara. The Jakarta Post's Ni Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni digs
deeper into the issue that has made national headlines.

Widespread incidence of malnutrition in West Nusa Tenggara has
added to the long list of health problems faced by the province's
four million people.

At least 487 children under five-years old have been recorded
as suffering from malnutrition up until May 31, and 10 of these
had died.

Four of the 10 dead succumbed at home, despite free treatment
being provided at hospitals. Families prefer to take care of
their sick children at home because they cannot afford to attend
to them while they are in hospital.

Malnutrition is a disease resulting from an acute deficiency
of protein and carbohydrate in the diet.

Sufferers usually die as a result of these deficiencies or
because their bodies are no longer capable of warding off
disease.

"If a child's abdomen is bloated, legs swollen and body
becomes thinner, then he or she is positively malnourished which
is known in medical terms as marasmus and kwashiorkor," said
deputy head of the West Nusa Tenggara Health Office, Dr. I Komang
Gerudug.

However, it takes several weeks or months for an
undernourished child to acquire the disease.

In the early stages, a sufferer usually faces inadequate
quantities and quality of nutrition intake.

Mothers should breast feed their infants until the age of six
months. But that is not the case in this province where most
babies do not get enough mother's milk for various reasons, such
as mother's also being malnourished, the high maternal mortality
rate, or mothers who leave their children behind to become
migrant workers. The cause of the disease is multifarious.

If sufferers are not immediately treated, they will gradually
become malnourished.

Due to their inability to heal themselves and their weak
immune systems, many sufferers eventually succumb to diarrhea and
malaria.

Their condition will deteriorate due to various contagious
diseases both acute and chronic.

"There are still numerous contagious diseases in the province,
especially those that infants are susceptible to, like pneumonia
and diarrhea. Both illnesses can aggravate the condition of
infants. Besides acute diseases, there are also chronic diseases
such as tuberculosis and malaria," said Komang.

Malnutrition is nothing new or strange in West Nusa Tenggara.

Actually, many such cases are found in this province where 60
percent, or about 2.7 million, of people aged over 15 work in the
agricultural or plantation sectors.

Data from the province's health office indicated that there
were 1,544 malnourished children in 2004, with no deaths
recorded.

"Perhaps there were deaths, but we never received any
reports," said head of the health and nutrition department at the
health office, Dr. Mari'e Sanad.

The rate of malnutrition in the province is cause for concern
as it is higher than the national average. The national average
is 8 percent of the total number of children under the age of
five, while the number of undernourished children reached 10
percent of the 500,000 under-fives in West Nusa Tenggara.

The total number of under-fives suffering from malnutrition in
the province is most likely more than this, because many cases go
unnoticed or unreported.

Head of the West Nusa Tenggara Health Office Baiq Magdalena
disclosed that only 50 percent to 60 percent of children under-
five had ever been brought to an integrated health service post
to receive health care.