Indonesia Number 2 Cases Of Tuberculosis In The World

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Director General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Maxi Rein Rondonuwu said Indonesia is currently in second place in the number of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world, with an estimated 969,000 cases.

"This number reaches an average of 354 cases per 100,000 population, from the ideal target of 65 cases per 100,000 population," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, July 31.

Maxi said the islands of Java, North Sumatra, and southern Sumatra were estimated to have the largest TB cases in 2021, because not all TB cases were detected and not all TB cases detected were properly cured.

He revealed that the confirmed cases of TB had decreased in 2021, namely with 443,235 cases, but the number jumped to 724,309 cases in 2022 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Currently there are 386,089 confirmed cases of TB as of July 18, 2023," he said.

The government has various programs in handling TB, one of which is stated in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 67 of 2021 concerning Tuberculosis Management, one of which is the target of reducing the death rate to six per 100,000 population by 2030.

The Ministry of Health made various efforts to improve service access, such as adding TB diagnosis facilities or networks, providing sufficient and sustainable TB logistics, as well as expanding drug resistant TB referral services (RO).

However, he said various efforts had not been able to reach the target, because many TB sufferers had not been diagnosed.

The Ministry of Health hopes that the community can be involved in handling TB, especially TB RO, so that the TB elimination target in Indonesia can be achieved by 2030.