Poverty, Disease, Customs: Why So Many Indonesian Children Die of Covid
The disease kills far more children in developing countries than in rich ones, and some factors make them especially vulnerable in Indonesia.
The grave of Alesha Kimi Pramudita, a 22-month-old who died after being infected with the coronavirus in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in July.Credit...
BULUS WETAN, Indonesia — When Debiyantoro, a hotel repairman, first lost his sense of taste, he wondered briefly if it might be Covid-19, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Having the disease would mean not being able to make a living.
Now he blames his reluctance to get tested for the death of his 22-month-old daughter, Alesha Kimi Pramudita. All 10 members of their crowded household suffered Covid-like symptoms but none were tested until Kimi went for an unrelated checkup. Hospitalized immediately, she died a day later.
“Although I thought it might have been Covid, I was afraid I wouldn’t be allowed to work, which means I couldn’t have supported my family,” Mr. Debiyantoro, who like many Indonesians uses one name, said as he tried to hold back tears. “But now I am filled with remorse that I lost my daughter.”
Across Indonesia, children have fallen victim to Covid in alarming numbers, with a striking increase since June, when the Delta variant began taking hold. The pandemic has killed at least 1,245 Indonesian children and the biggest recent jump has been among those under age 1, said Dr. Aman Bhakti Pulungan, head of the Indonesian Pediatric Society.
Researchers point to many reasons children would be more likely to die in developing countries, but many of those factors boil down to a single one: poverty.
Wealthy countries have gotten used to the idea that children are extremely rare pandemic victims. In the United States and Europe, people under 18 have accounted for about one of every 1,500 reported Covid deaths.
But the toll in less developed countries tells a different story. The pediatric society’s figures suggest that in Indonesia, about one of every 88 officially counted deaths has been that of a child.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/14/worl ... 778d3e6de3
