Despite having a smoking prevalence already among the highest in the world, Indonesia has slackened its efforts to control the tobacco industry in the face of powerful lobbying by business players.

Pandaya – "Just tobacco.

Jakarta – Indonesia, which has the world's highest prevalence of smoking, is facing an uphill attle to keep its burgeoning young population away from tobacco, an addiction that may in turn jeopardi

Arya Dipa, Bandung – A recent study has revealed that the number of victims of poisoning from bootleg liquor is higher in regions that have implemented a blanket ban on alcohol, a finding that may

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Surabaya – Growing pressure from foreign NGOs demanding Indonesia immediately ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) has been met with strong resistance fro

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – With few commitments to curb cigarette consumption, Indonesia is poised to have the largest population of smokers in the world in the next decade.

Prima Wirayani, Jakarta – The controversial alcohol prohibition bill may have been seldom heard about lately, but the political will remains strong to pass it into law within the current sitting pe

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Health Ministry is pushing for plain packaging on all cigarettes sold in Indonesia to reduce the alarmingly high smoking rate, especially among adolescents, which

Jewel Topsfield, Gelanggang, Lombok – Thirteen-year-old Ayu vomits every year while harvesting tobacco on her family's farm near Garut in West Java.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Indonesia is fighting a losing battle against cigarettes and the health community has not one ally within the government or among other elected state officials, as all

Jakarta – Indonesia and Timor Leste forged a closer relationship on Monday with the latter awarding medals of honor to hundreds of Indonesian Military members serving in Dili where they provided me

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – It's an excruciating way to die.

Haeril Halim and Margareth S.

Jakarta – Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama will drop the policy that bans the distribution and consumption of liquor in the capital and will revert back to its old bylaw following the

Stefani Ribka, Jakarta – Publicly listed beer manufacturer PT Delta Djakarta has expressed anxiety over the anticipated approval of a controversial alcohol prohibition bill, saying that the move wo

Paulina Quintao – Research of non-communicable disease conducted by the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the national university UNTL in 2014 shows that 1.5% of people in Timor-Leste suffer f

Erika Anindita Dewi, Jakarta – The House of Representatives started to deliberate a bill on liquor on Tuesday that would ban producing, storing, distributing and consuming alcoholic beverages with

Edo Karensa, Yogyakarta – Bootleg liquor has claimed more victims, this time killing at least nine people in Banguntapan, a subdistrict of Bantul in Yogyakarta, police said on Sunday (16/05).

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Yogyakarta Police are planning a crackdown on the sale of bootleg liquor, locally known as "oplosan", after 13 people died over the weekend after consuming the illicit

Jambi – A considerable number of residents suffer from mental disorders in Merangin regency, Jambi, with local health agency data listing 205 people with psychiatric disorders across the province.

More than 50% of Timorese children aged five and under suffer from malnutrition, according to 2013 data released by the Ministry of Health.

Paulina Quintao – The Ministry of Health in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO) has established a national taskforce to help combat the rise in antimicrobial resistance.

Activists rallied on Wednesday in protest against the 2016 World Tobacco (WT) Process and Machinery Asia event at JIExpo, Jakarta, in the wake of the finalization of a controversial tobacco bill th

Erika Anindita Dewi – The House of Representatives' Legislation Body (Baleg) has been quietly working to finalize the controversial tobacco bill that was already rejected by Health Ministry last De

Venidora Oliveira – Seventy-two percent of rural areas communities across 13 municipalities in Timor-Leste now have access to clean water, according to the Secretariat of State for Water and Sanita

Jakarta – Family planning experts insist that in countries like Indonesia, there needs to be greater engagement of faith-based communities to make sure everybody's sexual and reproductive health ne

Arlina Arshad – He used to be secured in wooden stocks, but he managed to break free of them. They have since been replaced with the iron chains.

Suherdjoko – Almost 25 percent of the people of Central Java still defecate in the open, especially in rivers, putting them at greater risk of contracting water-borne diseases, a health official sa

There are 48 pregnancies in every 1,000 teenage girls across Indonesia, which is slightly above the government's target for the issue, the latest data from the National Population and Family Planni

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Indonesia has attained significant improvement in terms of public nutrition, although challenges remain, with only nine cities and regencies recording no nutrition pro

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – Almost 19,000 mentally ill Indonesians are still being shackled or locked up in a confined place – sometimes for years – despite a 1977 ban on the practice, according to

Flori Geong, Wamena, Indonesia – When nurse Geno Wetipo first visited Samenage in Indonesia's Papua province in December 2013, she recalled seeing thin-limbed children with distended bellies.

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – Women's groups requested on Wednesday that the House of Representatives refrain from implementing a total ban on alcoholic drinks, arguing that such a ban would go

Arientha Primanita, Jakarta – A controversial bill on alcohol prohibition poses a serious threat to public health and safety as it will lead to rising consumption of illegal alcohol, like the oplos

Jakarta – University of Indonesia (UI) public health expert Hasbullah Thabrany threw down the gauntlet to the government on Thursday, demanding that it amend existing tobacco excise provisions in a

Jakarta – Counterfeit alcohol and moonshine has killed dozens of Indonesians already this year showing a failure in public health response, a study from the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies has

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Efforts to combat chronic and widespread malnutrition have started to bear fruit as the percentage of children under five who suffer from stunted growth experienced th

Jakarta – When the police started investigating a number of abortion clinics in Cikini, Central Jakarta, the immediate question from local residents was: "Why only now?" as they had known about the

Paulina Quintso – The Director of the National Optical Centre (NOC) Belmeiro Jeronimo said the institution would not provide medical consultations and eye surgery in all municipalities because it d

Havana – The former President of Timor-Leste, Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta, said today in Havana that no other organization or group of people in the world deserves the Nobel Peace Prize as much as the

Anton Hermansyah, Jakarta – Before joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Indonesia might have to assess clauses in the pact that affect the government's capacity to provide affordable vital m

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb and Hotli Simanjuntak, Padang/Banda Aceh – Floods that have submerged a number of regions in Indonesia over the past week have begun to result in major health consequences for

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Eliminating the production and distribution of bootleg liquor, locally known as oplosan, in Yogyakarta will not be easy with law enforcers even expressing doubts abou

The alcohol industry has called on the House of Representatives to draft a bill that would become the legal basis to regulate the distribution of alcoholic beverages in society.

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Yogyakarta is the repository of Javanese culture, a famed center for intellectuals and students.

Surabaya – Former prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste (RDTL) Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao visited patients at the Indonesian hospital ship KRI Dr Soeharso (KRI SHS)-990, which is on

Surabaya, East Java – Indonesian navy warship KRI Dr. Soekarso (KRI SHS)-990 has arrived in Dili, Timor Leste, for a health service mission.

Jakarta – The National Commission on Tobacco Control has reported that there has been a dramatic increase over the past few years in the number of young smokers in the country.

Paulina Quintso – The Chief of the Department of Non-infectious Diseases, of the Ministry of Health, Dr Herculano Seixas do Santos has urged the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Environment (MCIA

Paulina Quintso – The Chief of the Department of Non-infectious Diseases, at the Ministry of Health, Dr Herculano Seixas do Santos said now the Tobacco Control Law has been approved by the Timorese