The number of deaths due to tuberculosis in Indonesia is more than the Covid-19 cases.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Tuberculosis (TB) is still a world health problem, including Indonesia. It is estimated that 98 thousand Indonesians are not helped due to suffering from TB per year, or in other words about 11 people every hour.
Acting Director General of Disease Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said that TB has become a world health problem because of the very high number of cases and deaths. Worldwide, there are 10 million people affected by TB and 1.2 million of them died.
Maxi said, estimulation of TB sufferers in Indonesia in a year is 845 thousand people and 70 thousand of them occur in children aged less than 15 years. “Deaths due to TB in Indonesia are as many as 98 thousand people per year, so it is estimated that every 360 seconds or one hour there are 11 people who die from TB,” he said while filling the virtual conference of the Top of the Day Commemoration Tuberculosis Global 2021 on the Ministry of Health’s Youtube channel, Wednesday (24/3).
He said, the number of deaths due to TB in Indonesia was more than the Covid-19 cases. To overcome this, countries in the world have committed to achieve TB elimination by 2035 and TB-free by 2050.
“Along with this global commitment, Indonesia is targeting elimination by 2030,” he said.
Maxi said that the commemoration of World TB Day this year had the theme ‘Every Second is Precious, Save the Nation from Tuberculosis’. It has collaborated with the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud), there are TB seminars in children, TB prevention therapy, clean and healthy living habits (PHBS), socialization of TB care schools, reading stories of TB recovered, then electronic poster competitions for junior and senior high school levels.
“In addition, there is the launch of the TB buddy application and empathy for TB services, a comic competition,” he said.
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