Jakarta, IO – With only six more years before the deadline for reaching its target of tuberculosis (TBC) elimination, Indonesia remains the country with the second-most-numerous caseloads of the disease. According to the Ministry of Health, there were 969,000 new cases over the year, with an estimated one person infected with TBC every 33 seconds, and a total death rate of 144,000 Indonesians – or 16 people an hour!
“Indonesia already has an MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), but still faces many challenges before it can reach its target of TBC elimination by 2030. The Covid-19 Pandemic was one of the causes of the delay in achievement, as it makes it harder for us to pursue diagnosis and maintain treatment until a cure is achieved. There were 443,325 cases found last year, with a medication coverage of 45% and a success treatment rate of 86%.
The elimination target by 2030 is revised to a 90% incidence rate; that’s 65 per 100,000 citizens, and a death rate to 6 per 100,000 citizens. One of the ways to achieve this is through the TOSS (Temukan dan Obati Sampai Sembuh – find and cure completely) program,” declared dr. Imran Pambudi, MPH, Director of Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases at the Ministry of Health’s Directorate General of Prevention and Control of Diseases, in an interview conducted in Jakarta, Tuesday (4/7/2023).
Concern over TBC is expressed in Presidential Regulation Number 67 of 2021, concerning the Mitigation of Tuberculosis issued 2 August of that year. During the same event, Dr. dr. Erlina Burhan, Sp.P(K), Ph.D, a pulmonologist affiliated with Persahabatan Hospital, Jakarta, reported that one of the major causes why the number of TBC infection remains high is because it is distributed by air.
“When they cough, TBC patients spew forth droplets full of germs, in this case the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Being weightless, this bacterium floats in the air for a long time and over great distances. Other people nearby can easily absorb it by breathing in the contaminated air. Patients must be aware and cover their mouths when coughing, to prevent infecting others nearby,” she said.