HEALTH CARE

With the circulation of this, the 297th edition of Independent Observer, we are all facing the last week of 2023. The final week of the year is customarily a school holiday, coinciding with Christmas and New Year 2024. Generally, families in Indonesia plan holiday trips outside the city to visit relatives, where possible, bucking a gigantic traffic flow. 

In Indonesia, Integrated Service Posts (Posyandu) play an important role in improving the quality of maternal and child health. Posyandu provides routine health services to children, such as immunizations, weighing, measuring height, and other health checks. These efforts help identify health problems early and provide appropriate interventions. 

There has recently been an increase in Covid-19 case numbers in several Southeast Asian countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. In Indonesia, data from the DKI Jakarta Health Service, after zero deaths in October and November 2023, as of December 12, two Covid-19 positive patients with comorbidities were recorded to have died. 

Approaching the end of year holidays, after working hard for almost a whole year, it's time to unwind by going on holiday with friends, family, and partners. The moment you look forward to going on a trip or year-end holiday, but cannot avoid consuming foods that contain high calories and contain lots of sugar.

For more than five decades, dengue, or what is known as “dengue hemorrhagic fever” (DHF) has become a health problem in many parts of the world. To date, dengue infections are still not well controlled, as evidenced by the significant increase in incidence rates in Indonesia and abroad. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the management of dengue control programs. 

The world was shocked by the news of increasing cases of pneumonia in Denmark, England, and several European countries, following hundreds of cases in China in October 2023. Pneumonia is an acute inflammation of the lungs caused by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. It is historically one of the main health problems in Southeast Asia. New cases vary, at around 1.5 to 14 cases per 1,000 population. In the general population, the mortality rate among hospitalized patients is reported to be 7.6%. 

The burden of cancer continues to increase. WHO's latest publication "Setting Priorities, Investing Wisely & Providing Care for All" states that one in six deaths in the world is caused by cancer. Cancer cases in 2018 reached 18.1 million and will increase to 29.4 million in 2040. Meanwhile, the death rate in lower-middle-income countries is expected to remain high, far from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target. 

Indonesia had focused only on key population groups in handling HIV, because transmission trends were concentrated in these groups for a long time. Efforts to reduce HIV transmission from pregnant mothers to their babies only started in 2006. However, up until now women and children are still not completely safe from the threat of HIV transmission. Data from the 2022 Ministry of Health, of 5 million pregnant mothers, only 58% received HIV detection with 0.3% or 7,100 being HIV positive. Of that number, only 24%, or 1,700 received antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. 

The heart is an organ that never rests. The heart functions to pump blood and nutrients to all organs to support their normal functions, maintaining blood circulation and ensuring the delivery of oxygen-rich blood to all organs of the body.

In overcoming the high number of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) cases in Indonesia, the Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said technological innovation of mosquitoes containing Wolbachia is the solution.

Perinatal mental health system is not a priority in developing countries, including Indonesia, even though according to psychiatrist dr. Danti Filiadini, Sp.KJ, in the University of Indonesia Hospital’s “Postpartum Depression: Recognize and Mitigate Immediately” Health Talk held on Thursday (16/11/2023), one out of every four birthing mothers suffer from postpartum depression, with postpartum blues incidence rate being in the 50%-70% range, while that of postpartum depression being in the 22.3% range. The high level of depression incidence among pregnant and newly-birthing women is a serious problem that requires concern from everybody.