Durian. Indonesian government has targeted to eliminate tuberculosis in the country by 2030 as it becomes the tenth infectious diseases that cause the most deaths in the world,
According to President, Joko Widodo, the method of mitigation for handling covid-19 pandemic can become a model for handling the tuberculosis pandemic.
“I don’t know if this can be superimposed on covid’s handling so that the vehicles are the same. We can solve two things that are important for the health of our people. If that is possible, I think it will accelerate more,” he said when chairing a limited meeting on the Acceleration of Tuberculosis Elimination at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on July 21.
President Widodo said an aggressive tracking model for finding patients can also be used to look for tuberculosis patients who have not yet been reported.
A government data from 2018 shows there were 845,000 Indonesians who suffered from tuberculosis in which 98,000 of them have died from the infectious disease.
Concerning most tuberculosis patients are from productive group from age 15 to 55, the president wanted more attention to be given to handle the infectious disease.
Despite being preoccupied with handling covid-19 pandemic, President Widodo has instructed that diagnostic and treatment services for tuberculosis patients must continue. Patterns of treatment similar that have been applied in handling covid-19 issue can be studied and applied to increase the effectiveness of this tuberculosis treatments.
