A joint medical team has discovered five children suffering from malnutrition on Thursday in Kamur kampung, Kasuari Beach district.
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Kompas/B Josie Susilo Hardianto
Yohana, waits for her son, Bernabas Berpit, 3, at the hallway of Asmat Regency General Hospital in Agats on Thursday (18/1). Barnabas was treated in the hospital for malnutrition.
AGATS, KOMPAS – The malnutrition health emergency in Asmat regency, Papua, is expanding. A joint medical team from the Asmat administration and the Indonesian Military (TNI) has discovered five children suffering from malnutrition on Thursday (18/1) in Kamur kampung, Kasuari Beach district.
The children were taken to Agats Hospital in the Asmat capital, where they arrived on Thursday at 1 p.m. Papua time. All five received immediate medical care in the emergency room. The five children were emaciated and had dark patches on their faces.
Earlier, children suffering from measles and malnutrition were found in the eight districts of Swator, Aswi, Akat, Fayit, Pulau Tiga, Kolf Braza, Jetsy and Siret. Some 67 children have died. “With these five new patients, 14 children suffering from malnutrition are now being treated at Agats, while nine children are being treated for measles,” Agats Hospital director Riechard Mirino said.
Meanwhile, medics from the Health Ministry’s Asmat Task Force were deployed on Thursday morning to a number of kampungs hit by measles and malnutrition. The head of the ministry’s health crisis mitigation center, Achmad Yulianto, said that the ministry had also sent medicines and vaccines, including BCG for tuberculosis (TB) and the DPT-HB-HIB measles vaccine, to Asmat regency.
Achmad said that poor sanitation was among the causes of malnutrition in Asmat. Many local residents live in stilt houses that are not equipped with septic tanks. The medical team plans to provide vaccinations and treatment for communicable diseases, as well as nutrition and health counseling.
Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar, on a monitoring trip in Asmat, said that a mobile community health center (puskesmas) would be a good solution to ensure that healthcare services reached all Asmat residents. “We are ready to support a healthcare service program in Asmat’s remote areas. One way would be to deploy Bhabinkamtibmas [public order officers] to persuade residents to fully immunize their children,” Boy said.
The Papua Police, a number of state-owned enterprises and the National Alms Agency (Baznas) have sent assistance comprising meals, medicines and milk, as well as medics to Asmat. On Thursday, a team led by Sister Aloysia Tenaa OSU of the Agats diocese departed to Pulau Tiga district to deliver aid packages and to care for sick children. They will be in the district for one week and visit Nakai, Atat, As, Au and Kapi kampungs.
Agats Bishop Aloysius Muriwot said the diocese and the Asmat administration would be focusing more on counseling residents following the emergency response. “There are many things that need fixing, especially in how we instill the values of a healthy lifestyle and optimize locally sourced ingredients as part of achieving food security,” he said.
Ineffective
Health Ministry’s information system and reporting mechanism on health problems from the regions to the central government is ineffective. The reports often do not provide a comprehensive picture or analysis of the problems in the field. Ideally, reported health problems should be addressed immediately.
The ministry’s Papua regional counselor, Usman Sumantri, and the ministry’s director general of public health, Anung Sugihantono, pointed out the issue separately.
Papuan religious leader Pastor John Djonga said in a phone interview on Thursday that the measles and malnutrition health emergency was not the only recent tragedy in Asmat regency. Between May and December last year, 68 people in Saminage district, Yahukimo regency, died from malnutrition. In November, 41 infants in Paniai regency died from malnutrition.
John said that malnutrition was caused by a lack of staple food. Thousands of sago trees had been cut down and replanted with other crops, especially rice and oil palms.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Papua researcher Cahyo Pamungkas said that the conversion of sago forests into rice fields or oil palm plantations had cut off local communities from their ecological and cultural roots.
The local people could no longer plant and consume sago, and they cannot hunt because of deforestation. For instance, there are no more wild deer in Papua.
