Indonesia child deaths drop significantly

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesia is one of the countries that achieved the target of Millennium Development Goal Four after it made substantial progress in reducing child mortality.

According to a new global UNICEF report, Indonesia saved more than 5 million children from 1990 to 2015, when it dropped the mortality rate to children under 5 to 27 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 1990, the rate was 85 deaths per 1,000 live births.

This means in 1990, 395,000 children died in Indonesia before their 5th birthday, compared to 147,000 in 2015.

Indonesia is one out of 24 low and lower-middle income countries that achieved the target of reducing child deaths by two-thirds. Another 57 countries in the same category failed to meet the target.

“Saving the lives of millions of children is one of Indonesia’s great achievements over the past 25 years,” said UNICEF Representative Gunilla Olsson. “This progress is the result of sustained action by the country’s leaders – to make saving children’s lives a policy priority and to scale up coverage of key interventions.”

Among the strategies used by Indonesia included expanding coverage of immunization, exclusive breastfeeding and the prompt diagnosis and treatment of common childhood illnesses, which UNICEF has helped with as well.

But Olsson said that many challenges still remain.

She said 150,000 Indonesian children still die every year before their 5th birthday. and that most of the progress made in reducing child mortality was between 1990-2005.

“These latest numbers also hide significant disparities across this diverse archipelago. Available data suggests that child mortality in Papua is more than three times that of Jakarta and additional disparities exist across wealth quintiles,” she said.

She said Indonesia must now focus on complicated causes of child deaths, specifically because “almost half of under-five deaths occur in the first month after birth and can be attributed to complications from premature birth, asphyxia and severe infections.”

Olsson vowed that Indonesia would remain committed to dropping the number even further. – Rappler.com

Image of child from Shutterstock