Ministry Of Health Names Eight Provinces As Priority Targets For TB Elimination In Indonesia

JAKARTA - Acting Director of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health, Tiffany Tiara Pakasi said that there are eight provinces that are the focus of the government's priority targets in the program to accelerate the elimination of Tuberculosis (TB) in Indonesia.

"By considering resources, the burden of TB in their respective regions as well as existing supports, to speed up the recovery process for the TB program without neglecting the other 26 provinces, the acceleration efforts will be focused on eight provinces," Tiffany said in the Webinar. Socialization of the Establishment of the Multi-Sectoral TB Control Forum which was attended in Jakarta, Thursday 2 June.

Tiffany explained that the eight provinces are DKI Jakarta, Central Java, West Java, East Java, Banten, North Sumatra, South Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). By becoming representatives from 26 other provinces, it is hoped that the elimination of TB can cover at least 61 percent of the estimated number of existing cases, namely 824,000 cases. Of the eight provinces, said Tiffany, the government has taken into account every important indicator in eliminating TB. In the plan, there are at least 193 regencies/cities, 178,515,772 people and 500,284 TB cases that are targeted by the government.

"We take into account the population, take into account the notification of old cases, the availability of infrastructure and the availability of human resources who will carry out these acceleration efforts," he said as quoted by Antara.

Based on the description made by her party, Tiffany explained that in the eight provinces there is still a treatment coverage gap. The estimated TB cases by the government are 500,284 cases. However, it is known that the number of cases diagnosed or found has only reached 304,080 and the number of patients being treated has only reached 274,298. reducing the incidence of tuberculosis to 65 per 100,000 population, and the death rate of tuberculosis to six per 100,000 population, can be achieved by 2030. “This is a consideration, because of external support. We are working together for this area of accelerated elimination, we have identified colleagues from CSOs and also the involvement of additional personnel, whether it is from global fund support or other international partners," said Tiffany.