Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin said President Joko Widodo gave directions to prepare a special quarantine place for people with tuberculosis (TBC) for two months to prevent transmission of the disease.
"The President's directive is trying to prepare a special quarantine place, but if it can be close to each location where this tuberculosis occurs. So, for two months he did not infect his family, he was put into a special quarantine," Budi said 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 quarantine was needed because drugs for TB sufferers had only reacted within two months. The Minister of Health admitted that the President was asked to cooperate with the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) in preparing the quarantine place.
"I was told to cooperate with PUPR under the coordination of the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture so that TB would not be transmitted and given the drug, it was confirmed that he (the sufferer) continued to take medicine for two months," he said.
It is certain that there will be vaccinations for the community to prevent TB. He said Indonesia had actually given the BCG vaccine that had been given to children to prevent tuberculosis, but the effectiveness was only 50 percent.
"The BCG vaccine that we used to give was low effectiveness of around 50 percent. Now that Indonesia has actively participated with world organizations, there are already three potential new vaccines that we will try to bring in soon," he said.
The Minister of Health explained that TB disease was a disease thousands of years ago and currently remains in several major countries. He said the country ranked first with the highest number of TB sufferers was India, Indonesia's second rank and China's third rank. According to him, deaths from TB per year were more than 200,000 people, or higher than deaths from COVID-19.
"In Indonesia, it is estimated that 969,000 of our citizens are affected by tuberculosis every year and until before COVID-19, 545,000 people can be identified. So, the remaining 400,000 people are not detected, even though this disease is contagious, it can go anywhere," said Budi.
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