The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Health Ministry and the private sector are working together to promote hand washing to help tackle the staggering number of deaths from diarrhea in the country, particularly among children.
Diarrhea has become one of the most common diseases in Indonesia, killing more than 100,000 children every year.
According to the Jakarta Health Agency, Jakarta saw more than 20,000 people suffer from diarrhea in 2006. More than 11,000 diarrhea cases have been recorded from January to July this year.
"Washing hands with soap in the proper way can help people avoid getting diarrhea," Tjandra Yoga Aditama, the director of Communicable Disease Control at the ministry, told the Open Partnership Meeting on Monday.
The meeting, held by the ministry, the National Development Planning Board and other state institutions concerned with sanitation and public facilities, was also aimed at encouraging the non-government sector to participate in a hand washing campaign through the Public-Private Partnership Program.
Tjandra said Jakartans and people living in other cities had low awareness of proper hand washing.
"Many people only wash their hands when they feel they're dirty."
"People should wash their hands in running water before having something to eat, before preparing food, when they hold babies (and) after defecating and urinating," he said.
Tjandra said poor sanitation and unhealthy lifestyles had contributed to the high number of diarrhea patients in Indonesia, with 423 out of 1,000 people suffering from the disease. In many areas, the disease was so frequent as to be classified as an "extraordinary occurrence".
"Children are the most prone to this disease," he said.
Acute diarrhea is usually caused by infection and may be accompanied by bloating, nausea and abdominal pain, sometimes leading to death.
"The entrance of these germs into the human body affects the alimentary canal and the respiratory system the most," he said, adding that habitual hand washing could also help people avoid respiratory diseases such as bird flu and pneumonia.
According to Wan Alkadri, a director at the Health Ministry, hand washing prevented the transmission of the dangerous pathogens that caused diarrhea.
"Habitual hand washing is considered to a be do-it-yourself vaccine, which is more effective than any other vaccine," he said.
Since 2005, 90 out of a total of 111 bird flu patients have died, the majority of the deaths occurring in West Java.
The government needed the private sectors' participation to get the best results from the promotion campaign, Wan said.
"In its implementation, this program needs the private sectors' involvement. Their involvement would allow us to extend our capabilities and make the program sustainable," he said.
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