Materia Medica Malaysiana

Injury Main Cause Of Child Deaths, Disability, Says Chua

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 (Bernama) -- Child injury is now a leading cause of child deaths and disability in the country, says Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.

He said according to the Malaysian Vital Statistics Bulletin, road accidents alone killed 1,232 children in 2001.

"This means three children dying each day," he said in his speech at the launching of the Progress for Children Global Report by United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), here Thursday.

The text was read out by the ministry's Director of Family Planning Unit, Datuk Dr Narimah Awin.

Dr Chua said apart from that, there was an emerging issue of HIV/AIDS which had the potential of becoming major public health problems.

"Learning from other countries, the Ministry of Health has responded with several programmes which include prevention of mother to child transmission and free antiretroviral treatment for HIV-positive children and pregnant women who have undergone antenatal screening in our clinics," he said.

Dr Chua also said changes in food consumption due to changing socio-economic development, led to other problems such as malnutrition, obesity and chronic diseases linked to dietary imbalance, namely hypertension and coronary heart diseases.

However, the government introduced programmes such as the "Applied Food and Nutrition" programme in the 70s and the "School Supplementary Feeding Programme" to provide children from low income families with food supplements including milk.

"As a result, acute malnutrition is no longer a problem in our country," he added.

But, he said the Malaysia had begun to experience the emergence of overweight and obesity in both children and adults.