President Orders Minister Of Health To Immediately Detect TB Sufferers

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin/ANTARA/Hreeloita Dharma Shanti/aa.

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) ordered the Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin to immediately detect all Indonesians suffering from tuberculosis (TBC).

"Mr. President gave directions, the number one I must cooperate with the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Villages to ensure that the detection of all people who may be subject to tuberculosis must be carried out immediately, if possible, as quickly as possible," said Minister of Health Budi Gundai after attending a limited meeting to accelerate the elimination of tuberculosis at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, July 18.

The Minister of Health said that based on the estimated 969,000 TB sufferers in Indonesia every year. Previously, of these, only 545,000 patients could be identified, while the remaining more than 400,000 were not detected. However, with the aggressiveness of the government's program to prevent and deal with TB, there was an increase in the detection of TB sufferers to 720,000.

"We hope that by 2024 90 percent of the estimated 969,000 can be found or detected," he said.

He revealed that one of the problems related to TB handling is patients who are not disciplined in taking drugs according to the recommended timeframe.

"He has to take the medicine for at least six months. The pills are between five and seven pills. So people are lazy to take medication until it's finished. If they are not disciplined until they finish, because these are antibiotics, later they can become resistant, this is even more difficult. The medicine can last up to 20 months, he (must) continue to drink, "said Minister of Health Budi.

To overcome this, the government will mobilize community components to help socialize the provisions for taking TB drugs.

The Minister of Health also directly asked President Jokowi's willingness to be able to endorse or support the recommendation of taking TB drugs to the public.

Currently, there are three potential new TB vaccines that will soon be brought in as a form of prevention for TBC, namely the recombinant TB protein vaccine from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and two other vaccine candidates that are being studied by the government, namely mRNA (BioNTech - Biofarma) and viral vector (CanSino - Etana).

According to him, the mRNA vaccine is faster than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in handling COVID-19.