Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – With three years remaining ahead of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline in 2015, the number of infant and maternal deaths in 20 provinces throughout Indonesia remains high partly due to poor access to health care facilities and skilled health care workers, a health official said.
Kirana Pritasari, the Health Ministry's director for child health, said Friday that challenges to infant and maternal mortality reduction in those provinces remained high despite efforts to tackle problems underlying such fatalities.
"Starting this year, we will prioritize programs to reduce infant and maternal deaths in 150 regencies and municipalities in the 20 provinces that have highest number of infant and maternal deaths," she told a press briefing at the Health Ministry office.
Those provinces are Banten, Central Java, Central Sulawesi, East Java, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Gorontalo, Lampung, Maluku, North Sumatra, Papua, Riau, South Kalimantan, Southeast Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, South Sumatra, West Java, West Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), West Papua, and West Sumatra.
The country's goal is to reduce the infant mortality rate to 23 per 1,000 live births by 2015 from the current rate of 34 per 1,000 live births. The maternal death rate is projected to decline to 102 per 100,000 live births in 2015 from 228 per 100,000 live births at present.
Kirana said the programs would take place not only in areas with a high number of infant and maternal deaths, but also in particular regions with poor access to health care facilities and skilled health care workers.
"Some of those 20 provinces have a high number of maternal and infant deaths; but in some other cases, we need to prioritize certain provinces, such as Maluku, Papua and West Papua, as they have poor access to health care services due to geographical challenges," she said.
Flying Health Care is one of the special approaches the Health Ministry is currently taking to increase the health status of people living in provinces with poor infrastructure facilities, such as Papua and West Papua.
"We will also empower people in those provinces on how to manage their health so they will not depend too much on curative services," Kirana said.
The programs delivered in the 20 provinces with the highest number of infant and maternal deaths will also include Expanding Maternal and Neonatal Survival (EMAS), a five-year program funded by USAID. This program will take place in 30 regencies in six provinces, namely Banten, Central Java, East Java, North Sumatra, South Sulawesi and West Java, during the period from 2012-2016.
"In the first year, we will deliver the program in 10 regencies," said Kirana, adding that the program would run under cooperation with several organizations such as Budi Kemuliaan, Muhammadiyah, JPHIEGO, Save the Children and RTI International.
"We hope that nationally, the maternal and infant mortality rate can be reduce by 25 percent from current rates, as this program will take place in regencies and municipalities with highest number of maternal and infant deaths," she said.