Jakarta – The House of Representatives rebuked on Thursday the Ministry of Health for refusing to share responsibility for the widespread use of harmful preservatives, such as formaldeh

Hera Diani, Jakarta – The year 2005 saw a series of natural and health-related disasters in the country that putt huge pressures on the still wobbly healthcare system here.

A'an Suryana, Banda Aceh – One year after the Indian Ocean tsunami, children in Indonesia are recovering at a slower pace compared to children in other countries affected by the destruc

Jakarta – A high-ranking government official returning from Yahukimo regency in Papua denied on Thursday a famine was underway in the isolated region, describing people there as "fat".

Havana – Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri, praised Cuba's development and breakthroughs in its health system and its successful cooperati

Jayapura/Jakarta – Stunned by reports of famine in a remote Papua district that has left 55 people dead, the government dispatched a military cargo plane on Friday night to carry food a

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Breaking a long-held tradition of secrecy, the Indonesian Military disclosed on Tuesday that 48 of its soldiers in Papua had contracted HIV/AIDS since 200

Jakarta – Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is scurrying to ready for a potential bird flu pandemic but health and animal husbandry officials warn they so far lack cru

Hera Diani, Jakarta – UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot could be in any city in the world for World AIDS Day, which falls on Thursday.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Only two days after a raid that led to the death of one of Indonesia's most wanted terrorist suspects, police struck at a massive illegal drug factory near Jakart

Duncan Graham, Contributor/Surabaya – To stay healthy and to be responsible, Indonesian youth should have access to condoms and other contraceptives in places where they feel relaxed ab

Hera Diani, Jakarta – With the fuel price increases, the tsunami disaster in December and reports of bird flu and polio, affordable, quality health care is out of reach for more and mor

Sudirman Nasir, Melbourne – It is crucial that Acehnese, men and women, be directly involved in all stages of rehabilitation programs in the province.

Jakarta – Suspected bird flu patients can be forced into hospital under "extraordinary" measures welcomed by the World Health Organization to counter a widening outbreak of the virus in

Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta – Around 700 members of the Islamic mass organisation Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) in Yogyakarta, Central Java, held an action opposing the legalisation of

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – Millions of teenagers are sexually active in the country but official ignorance or a head-in-the-sand attitude is leading to a continuing neglect of their needs,

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – The outbreak of polio in Indonesia could spread to other countries in the region, but a plan to vaccinate 24 million children next week should halt its progres

Evi Mariani, Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara – While people in big cities begin to take up food combining, complete with the complicated calculations of daily consumed nutrition, most

Jakarta – Not everybody is impressed by the nationwide campaign for the use of condoms to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Ambon, Maluku – Hundreds of displaced persons living in shelters across Ambon are suffering from malnutrition, a health official says.

Bandung – No Indonesian province is now free from HIV infection, with the recorded number of people living with the virus in the country standing at 7,098.

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – After attending to a client Agung (not his real name), an employee at the office of an abortion clinic in Dukuh Kupang, Surabaya, begins checking off names

With its Gucci-filled shopping malls, Indonesia's capital shares the emerging superficial affluence of many other Asian cities, but while many in Jakarta are now better off, new wealth

Jakarta – The number of reported AIDS cases in Indonesia has more than doubled, with injecting drug users most affected, a report says.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – As Jakarta celebrated its 478th anniversary on Wednesday, the city administration made public a report of a further 26 malnourished children in the capital.

Endy M. Bayuni, Jakarta – The government has launched a series of measures to tackle the growing incidence of malnutrition affecting hundreds, probably thousands, of under-fives.

Blontank Poer, Wonogiri – The sun is just starting to lean to the west while Misni, 41, shifts peeled cassava being dried on plaited bamboo trays and places it on the ground to get dire

Hera Diani, Jakarta – The current outbreak of malnutrition that is affecting thousands of children in some provinces might be considered a slap in the face for President Susilo Bambang

Jakarta – If a province is wealthy enough to allocate Rp 12 billion (US$1.26 billion) for the renovation of its governor's residence, why do its children continue to suffer from malnutr

Cirebon, West Java – Some 4,000 children in Cirebon regency are suffering from malnutrition, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – It was a Tuesday morning when a group of women gathered to chat on a narrow veranda of the house of a subdistrict head in Pangkalan Jati Baru, Depok.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – At least 8,455 children under five in Jakarta are suffering from malnutrition, the City Health Agency reported on Friday.

Rusman and Blontank Poer, Samarinda/Surakarta – Although East Kalimantan is popularly known as natural resource-rich province, malnutrition is still rampant in the area.

Becky Lipscombe, Lampuuk – Lampuuk was virtually destroyed in the 26 December tsunami Five months after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated large parts of the Indonesian province

Margie Mason – Big tears stream down Siti Fauziah's cheeks as she snuggles her doll and buries her face into her mother's shoulder.

M.

Paris – The immediate nutritional needs of areas in Aceh hit by the December tsunami have been met, but more than a third of children under the age of five are showing signs of stunted

Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta – Malnutrition was found in almost 12 percent of children in Indonesia's Aceh region who were displaced by the Dec.

Jakarta – A new survey shows that the amount of poor people in the country was 66 percent higher than was earlier predicted. Why?

Jayapura – The number of people with HIV/AIDS is on the rise in Papua, with around 500 people testing positive for the virus every year.

Richel Dursin, Jakarta – Campaigners against smoking are pressuring the Indonesian government to embrace an international anti-tobacco treaty and warn that if it fails to do so the coun

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Poor Jakarta residents cannot look forward to improved access to affordable health care after the central government decided to exclude the capital from a subs

Niken Widya Yunita, Jakarta – Believing it will be commercialised, the People's Forum for Health Concerns (Forum Rakyat Peduli Kesehatan) held a demonstration opposing the privatisation

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – The central government requested the Jakarta administration resume control of the newly corporatized hospitals in the city as it fears their new status will ad

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – For the past few weeks, M.

Jayapura – The number of people living with HIV/AIDS has reached an alarming level in the nation's easternmost province of Papua.

On average, 10 people with dengue fever are admitted to city-owned hospitals every day, bringing the total of dengue cases since the beginning of this year to nearly 2,000.

Tom Noble – In a small hospital in East Timor a father smiles. His once-blind son has seen the light, literally, after an operation by Australian doctors. It's a small miracle.

Although the current number of casualties of dengue hemorrhagic fever is lower than last year's, the government has announced an extraordinary occurrence of dengue fever in 12 provinces

Ben Moxham – The East Timorese newspaper Suara Timor Lorosae reported on February 7 that at least 53 people had died of starvation in the village of Hatabuiliko since October.