Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Health is carrying out the Stunting Prevention Simultaneous Intervention program in several Indonesian regions to prevent stunting in children from an early age.In a dialogue held online by FMB9 IKP of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics here on Wednesday, director general of public health at the ministry, Maria Endang Sumiwi, informed that she is continuing to provide data and information that can be used by related parties.
"We are trying to provide data and information quickly so that all parties involved can use the data and information effectively," Sumiwi said during the dialogue on "Challenge of Pursuing Stunting Drops to 14 percent."
Therefore, the ministry is seeking to make sure that the Simultaneous Intervention program serves as a preventive measure that is more effective than just treating stunting. She said she believes that stunting is still prevalent because the prevention carried out — both by the government and the community — has remained inadequate.
"We are still in a transition period, where we tend to treat disease rather than prevent it. The same thing is happening with stunting, where preventive measures are still lacking," she added.
Under the simultaneous interventions, which will be implemented in June, the Ministry of Health's first step will be to ensure that pregnant women facing problems with early nutrition receive appropriate treatment.
Sumiwi said that pregnant women will need to visit the nearest integrated service post (posyandu) to carry out a health check for possible early nutritional problems.
If initial nutritional problems are detected, they will be given a referral to the community health center (puskesmas) as well as additional food for 120 days. Meanwhile, the second step will be measuring the weight of toddlers to catch nutritional problems early.
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"We want to ensure that if a toddler's weight does not increase from the previous month, there is immediate intervention to prevent more serious nutritional problems," she explained.
In addition, the ministry has issued a circular asking prospective brides and grooms to undergo a health check at the posyandu to ensure that they are ready to get married and have children with optimal health.