Life is Healthy

Antara News, Saturday, March 20, 2010 22:12 WIB

Pontianak (ANTARA News) - The government plans to hasten health improvement development program in remote and border areas to provide the local people with better health care services.

"We will soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the health improvement program in remote areas, border areas, and smaller islands," Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said in the West Kalimantan city of Pontianak on Friday.

She said signing of the MoU would be followed up by real action to improve health services for the people living in those areas.

According to the minister, the government had to make every effort to speed up the health improvement program because health access and service in most of the isolated areas in small islands across the country have yet to be effective as being expected.

"Health status in the remote areas is still low while we have limited human resources, funds, infrastructure, and facility," the health minister said.

Meanwhile, West Kalimantan deputy governor Christiandy Sanjaya also shared the minister`s opinion and said it did happen at many areas in the province.

"Geographic condition in West Kalimantan is difficult, public transportation and facility are limited, and health service access is low because of limited number of health personnel," Sanjaya said.

He said allocation of regional budget (APBD) to improve health services in the remote and isolated areas was also low in amount.

"Therefore we hope there is a support from central government," Sanjaya said, explaining that there were five areas in West Kalimantan bordering with Malaysia, namely Entikong in Sanggau district,Nangabadau in Kapuas Hulu district, Aruk in Sambas district, Jagoibabang in Bengkayang district, and Jasa in Sintang district.

He said infectious diseases and the others that can be prevented through immunization still posed serious problem in those five border areas in West Kalimantan.

"At Sajingan clinic in the past three years there were frequent extraordinary cases of measles because many children there missed measles immunization," Sanjaya said.

Over the past 10 years, the Microsoft co-founder's charity has committed $4.5 billion to vaccines and has been instrumental in establishing the GAVI alliance, a public-private partnership that channels money for vaccines in poor countries.

By increasing immunization coverage in developing countries to 90 percent, it should be possible to prevent the deaths of 7.6 million children under five between 2010 and 2019, Gates told reporters at the World Economic Forum.

Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization described Gates' commitment to vaccines as "unprecedented" and called on governments around the world and the private sector to match it with "unprecedented action."

Vaccination rates have already climbed remarkably in recent years, with even a poor African country like Malawi now boasting coverage rates similar to those in many Western cities.

"Over the last 10 years, the success of both increased vaccine coverage and getting new vaccines out has been phenomenal," Gates said.

More cash is now needed to make the most of new vaccines becoming available, including ones against severe diarrhea and pneumococcal disease from GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Pfizer.

"We can take immunization to the next level, with the expanded uptake of new vaccines against major killers such as pneumonia and rotavirus diarrhea," Chan said in a statement.

She said an extra two million deaths in children under five could be prevented by 2015 by widespread use of new vaccines and a 10 percent increase in global immunization coverage.

Further off, Glaxo is also in the final phase of testing a vaccine against malaria that Gates said could slash deaths from the mosquito-borne disease.

Gates warned against the risk of governments diverting foreign aid funding for health toward climate change, arguing that health should stay a top priority -- not least because better health leads to a lower birth rate.

Curbing the globe's population growth is critical for tackling global warming.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler, additional reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Jon Boyle)