Health & Nutrition

While successful in reducing infant and child mortality rates in recent years, Indonesia faces greater challenges in reducing child malnutrition and improving maternal health. Maternal mortality is still high at 307 per 100,000. Micronutrient deficiencies, including iodine, vitamin A and iron are prevalent; 58 million Indonesians do not consume iodized salt; up to 70% of women and children are anemic. Political decentralization has resulted in a lack of funding and management capacity for health services in many of the nation’s 33 provinces and 440 districts. This has had a negative impact on many aspects of health care, especially crucial immunization efforts across the archipelago. Political decentralization has resulted in a lack of funding and management capacity for health services in many of the nation’s 33 provinces and 440 districts

Still, immunization has shown improvement from the 1990s, with 72 per cent of children 12-23 months old immunized against measles. Immunization coverage in Indonesia varies widely, however, and outbreaks of measles are not uncommon. Polio cases have re-emerged in 2005, for the first time since 1996, with 295 reported cases in the first nine months alone. One in five Districts is at high risk for maternal and neonatal tetanus. Malaria affects up to 20 percent of the population, especially in Eastern Indonesia. Only 10 percent of 30 million annual malaria cases are treated in health facilities.

© UNICEF Indonesia_1_060104_Josh Estey

Source: http://www.unicef.org