Morbidity and mortality study on diarrhoeal diseases in North Jakarta - an urban area.

Diarrhoea including its interaction with undernutrition is one of the most important health problems and a major cause of death in young children in developing countries including Indonesia. To quantify the problems and to have comparison with results of other diarrhoeal surveys in Indonesia as well as in other developing countries, a survey was done in urban community comprising a population of 5,115 living in a relatively good area which was not a slum, nor wealthy area. The incidence of diarrhoea in this area was 149 per 1000 population a year and mortality rate of 0.2 per 1000 population, and 1.8% of diarrhoeal cases in the community became dehydrated needing hospitalization. The incidence of diarrhoeal disease was lower than in the survey done in semiurban area Ujung Pandang 8 years ago. This may be due to the improvement of environmental health, socio-economic status and better education. 47% of the diarrhoeal cases had occurred in children under age five. The peak incidence was in the 6 to 12 months age group. Young-age combined with low-nutritional status and early weaning may be factors leading to high incidence and death rates of diarrhoeal diseases. Incidence increased in the middle of the rainy season. 30% of the episodes were caused by enteropathogenic bacteria, 15.4% by rotavirus while for 50% of episodes the causative agent could not be determined.