HEALTH CARE

As a group, children are vulnerable to health issues. According to the Indonesian Nutrition Status Survey, the prevalence of stunting in Indonesia has declined from 24.4% in 2021 to 21.6% in 2022.

As the dry season progresses, air pollution in the Jakarta region continues to worsen over the past few months. Complaints of bad air quality have been aired from March 2023 until now, the middle of August. During this period, IQAir, the renowned Swiss air quality information platform, has repeatedly alerted all that Jakarta’s air quality is in the “red” (unhealthy for everyone) and “orange” (unhealthy for sensitive groups) categories. 

Mother’s milk is the optimal food for babies. This is why the WHO has declared the first week of August each year as World Nursing Week. In Indonesia, the importance of supplying mother’s milk for the first thousand days of life is being championed in the effort to intervene against stunting. 

Every time I exit the Kebayoran Lama train station, the sky goes cloudy as if it would rain soon, far as the eye can see. However, it is not cloud or fog, but smoky pollution. In fact, on Tuesday, 8 August 2023, the Jakarta accumulative air pollution index measures 164, while according to the WHO Air Quality Guidelines for Particulate Matter, Ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide And Sulfur Dioxide, the safe threshold for PM2.5 exposure is 25 μg/m3/24 hour. According to the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency, the current air pollution range level of 151-250 μg/m3 is extremely unhealthy. 

Health Ministry (Kemenkes) is committed to preventing cervical cancer by intensifying free Human Papillomavirus (HPV) immunization for young girls nationwide.

Tuberculosis or “TB” is a potentially fatal and extremely infectious disease. Pathogens fly freely and spread through the air when a sufferer coughs, sneezes or merely talks. According to the 2022 Global Tuberculosis Report, TB incidence in Indonesia in 2021 was 969,000 cases, with 144,000 deaths. This means that Indonesia is the country with the second-highest TB incidence, after India (2.95 million cases), rising one rank from the previous year. 

1-7 August is commemorated as World Breastfeeding Week each year. This year’s theme is “Enabling Breastfeeding, Making a Difference for Working Parents”, with the focus on breastfeeding support for mothers in the workplace. It is important for employers to support nursing mothers by having policies such as maternity leave for at least 18 weeks, or ideally, more than six months, as well as facilities that support breastfeeding in the workplace.

The 2018 Baseline Health Research shows that the national alcohol consumption in Indonesia is a mere 3% of the population, thanks to strict regulations regulating everything from its production process to distribution. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about cigarettes and other tobacco products, whose prevalence of use among teens and children continues to increase – from 7.2% in 2013 to 9.1% in 2018. 

Indonesia is the country with the highest prevalence of hepatitis B, and third-highest prevalence of hepatitis C, in the Southeast Asian Region. According to the 2013 Health Baseline Study, the prevalence of hepatitis B in our country is 7.1%, while that of hepatitis C is 1%. Indonesia is a country with medium-high endemicity of hepatitis B, with the biggest proportion of infection occurring with pregnant mothers transmitting the disease to their fetuses. In 2022, out of a total of 50,744 pregnant women suffering from hepatitis B, 35,757 of their babies were born positive with an infection. 

A polycystic ovary syndrome (POCS) is a common endocrinal (hormonal) abnormality, affecting some 5%-20% of reproductive-aged women. “If not diagnosed and dealt with promptly, POCS may exacerbate the risk of type-2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and endometrium (womb wall) cancer. Unfortunately, around 50% of women suffering from POCS go undiagnosed, meaning that they fail to receive proper treatment,” reported dr. Gita Pratama, Sp.OG, Subsp.FER, M.Sc,Rep., in his doctoral promotion at the University of Indonesia Faculty of Medicine Doctorate Program, Monday (17/7/2023). 

The Covid-19 pandemic left us with multiple activities that we can engage in online, whether in front of a computer or walking around and tapping on a gadget. Studying, learning to cook, playing a game – all of these can be performed online. Therefore, it is no surprise that financial transactions, including shopping and gambling, can also be performed online.