Agats General Hospital which only has 20 beds, moved some patients to a church hall because it could not accommodate them.
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AGATS, KOMPAS — The number of malnourished children treated at Agats General Hospital, Asmat regency, Papua, jumped to 37 on Friday. The hospital, which only has 20 beds, moved some patients to a church hall because it could not accommodate them.
Based on a Kompas observation at 6 p.m. local time, the hospital, aided by policemen and soldiers, moved 13 malnourished patients to the Indonesian Protestant Church.
The church is located about 100 meters from the hospital. The patients were accommodated in beds belonging to the Indonesian Military (TNI), which temporarily moved to the place of worship. A team of doctors from the Health Ministry in cooperation with a team from TNI headquarters and the National Police examined the patients who are all aged between 1 and 3.
The hospital is currently treating 24 patients for malnutrition and measles.
Asmat Regent Elisa Kambu said 16 more malnourished children and one measles sufferer were brought in on Friday. Up until Thursday, the number of patients treated at the hospital reached 20 — eight with measles and 12 suffering from malnutrition.
"The hospital can no longer accommodate patients with malnutrition and measles brought in from remote villages. We are preparing a number of other places to accommodate the patients, such as the Asmat regency administration\'s training center," said Elisa.
She explained that the administration was currently building a hospital to accommodate more patients in Agats. "The new facility is expected to be completed next year."
According to Elisa, her administration planned to cooperate with the TNI and Health Ministry to employ medical workers post-treatment.
Evacuation continues
Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said his team would comb every village to evacuate children suffering from malnutrition and measles.
"Today (Friday), the team from the joint humanitarian task force evacuated 14 children suffering from malnutrition and measles in Atsy district," said Boy. The team also delivered medicine and food.
Based on observations by Kompas, many children suffering from malnutrition and measles have not been evacuated in two villages in Pulau Tiga district. In Aou village, four children were in poor condition, while in Kapi village two have measles.
Children in the two villages, which have no medical workers, received food assistance but not medical treatment.
The children all seemed to be malnourished. Their stomachs bloated, skin tightly wrapped around protruding bones.
At Aou village, Sister Aloysia OSU distributed milk and biscuits to the children.
Aloysia reminded parents to drink their milk and not to eat their children\'s biscuits. Based on recent experiences in serving residents in remote areas in Asmat, food assistance for children was consumed by their parents due to the lack of food.
The sister also reminded housewives, most of whom looked underfed, not to smoke while holding their babies.
Residents of Kapi and Aou villages depend on rainwater and water from the rivers for their daily needs. There are no toilets in the houses and locals dispose their waste wherever they can, including the riverbanks.
Giving feedback
On Friday, the Health Ministry’s director-general of community health, Anung Sugihantono, said regional administrations were given feedback on the nutritional status of their respective regions.
They were also reminded to conduct a health data analysis and follow it up.
Based on Nutrition Status Monitoring in 2016, 3.2 percent of children under five in Papua were malnourished and 11.9 percent were underfed.