Despite downward trend, infant mortality rate remains high in Indonesia

Despite downward trend, infant mortality rate remains high in Indonesia

2011-10-07 06:14:52 GMT+7 (ICT)

JAKARTA, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- Indonesia's infant mortality rate remains high despite showing a downward trend during the past few years, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative for Indonesia Angela Kearney told the Antara news agency.

Kearney, speaking during a workshop in Jakarta which addressed household and hospital care, said that during the past 10 years, the infant mortality rate in Indonesia has dropped from 97 deaths out of every 1,000 births in 1991 to 35 in every 1,000 births.

According to a recent health demography survey, some 193,000 children lost their lives before reaching the age of 5 in the Southeast Asian country, Kearney noted. On the island of Sulawesi alone, 17.3 out of every 1,000 newborns died before they reached the age of 28 days in 2010 and almost 70 percent of these occurred during their first week of being born.

One cause for concern is the lack of access to adequate health facilities in Indonesia. Kearney again noted that in Sulawesi, a large number of mothers give birth without the assistance of trained medical workers. One in every five mothers in the country are from poor families.

The UNICEF representative called on the country to increase the number of trained medical workers nationwide as the lack of personnel, along with the lack of proper infrastructure and health equipment, are constantly hindering Indonesia's health services.

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