Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Pene (Agenzia Fides) - Some aid workers engaged in the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), one of the least developed in Indonesia, have registered that infant mortality rate is almost twice the national average and among the leading causes of this phenomenon is an ancient folk tradition. In fact, according to a traditional practice considered hygienic and healthy, immediately after birth the mother and baby are confined for 40 days in a "umebubu", a grass hut, with wood that burns, and there is no ventilation. The effects of the smoke which is inhaled and the acute respiratory illness (ARI) caused by lack of ventilation can be deadly. According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 40 thousand children die of pneumonia each year in Indonesia. The most recent data carried out by the local Ministry of Health reported that currently ARI deaths are spread mainly in the poorest rural areas. In the province of NTT there are 80 deaths out of 1000, against the national average of 44 out of 1000, the main cause is ARI. According to government statistics, in 2010, about half of the 4.6 million inhabitants of the province of NTT was diagnosed or reported symptoms of ARI. The head of UNICEF in the city of Kupang, said that this emergency is highly dependent on housing conditions, ventilation of the premises and the fact that families all live together in a single environment. Since the government has intervened, in 2009 and 2010 many women gave birth in health centers and fewer people use umebubu, although occasionally there are still those who boil water on fires with the wood in their straw huts. The chief of the villages are aware of the risks involved in umebubu, however, changing the people’s mentality and culture remains very difficult. Some NGOs have introduced "healthy homes", structures with windows and pavements, which not only improve the ventilation, but eliminate the unhealthy conditions of eating on dirty floors. Others encourage the use of gas stoves and cooking in a ventilated environment and possibly not in the presence of children. According to WHO, contaminated indoor air exposure kills 1.6 million people each year, about one every 20 seconds. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 03/09/2011)
