IBD Cases Increase, The Attendance Of The IBD Center Is Expected To Provide Better Handling

The press conference for the launch of the Abdi Waluyo IBD Center Hospital and the Rudolf Smadibrata Gastroenterology-Hepatology & Endoscopy Center (Yesica Sitinjak/VOI)

JAKARTA - Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) has increased in Asia, including in Indonesia. IBD is a group of autoimmune diseases, where the immune system attacks and causes chronic inflammation of the digestive tract.

"In Asia, the data is 0.77 per 100 thousand population. But in Indonesia, there are 84.3 people per 100 population," said Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, Dante Saksono Harbuwono, during a press conference in Jakarta, Friday, September 12, 2025.

Internal medicine specialist at Abdi Waluyo Hospital, Prof. Dr. Marcellus Simadibrata, Ph.D, Sp.PD-KGEH, FACG, FASGE, FINASM, also said that the prevalence of IBD continues to increase in Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific region. One of the causes such as Indonesia is a relative shortage in the availability of IBD drugs.

The average is only oral anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroin, immunosuppressants, and the limited number of biological drugs available. However, they often do not have access to guselkumab/risankizumab, JAK inhibitors, and S1P receptor modulators, the latest/final in IBD treatment, "explained Prof. Marcel.

Therefore, health services are needed that include the entire IBD treatment. As launched by Abdi Waluyo Hospital, namely the Abdi Waluyo Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center and the Rudolf Smadibrata Gastroenterology-Hepatology & Endoscopy Center.

The service is the first IBD treatment center in Indonesia to handle the disease. These two centers are designed to deal with various digestive system complaints through multidisciplinary services and will continue to collaborate closely in the future.

The two centers are supported by the latest multidisciplinary team of specialists and technology, and will handle various digestive tract problems. Starting from IBD, upper and lower digestive tract disorders, as well as liver problems, bile ducts, and pancreas.

Not only that, there are also holistic treatments that include initial consultation, assessment of potential risk profiles and complications during the journey of IBD disease, dietary assessment by clinical nutrition specialists, psychological support, treatment review, annual preventive health assessments, and continuous disease monitoring.

"We hope that in the future we will become a reference center for all digestive diseases, especially IBD," added Prof. Marcel.

Regarding the central service for IBD, this is highly supported by the Indonesian Ministry of Health. Dante Saksono hopes that the service carried by Abdi Waluyo Hospital can be used as a reference for case data related to IBD and can later be made in other hospitals.

"Hopefully after this we have a national figure so that we can see how the magnitude of this problem really is, so that IBD centers like this can be built," concluded Dante Saksono Harbuwono.