…and often patients stigmatize themselves..
Jakarta (ANTARA) – Director of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases of the Ministry of Health Imran Pambudi said stigma and discrimination are still a challenge for tuberculosis (TB) patients which causes them to be reluctant to complete treatment.
“TB patients who don’t want to start treatment or don’t finish treatment because of stigma,” he said in the webinar “TB-CAPS: Together Reducing Tuberculosis Stigma”, Thursday.
According to Imran, the problem of stigma and discrimination needs to be taken quite seriously, involving not only health workers, but cooperation from other sectors, including the community.
“There is still a lack of knowledge of the community and health workers and patients often stigmatize themselves, health workers (must) have awareness behavior not to stigmatize TB patients,” he explained.
Also read: TB patients can recover as long as they take regular treatment
According to the Ministry of Health, the stigma associated with TB that is developing is one of the people’s perceptions that this is a disease of the poor.
Apart from stigma and discrimination, TB patients also experience problems in accessing quality TB services and to overcome this Imran encourages feedback from the community on TB services provided by the government.
On the other hand, data and information are also needed regarding barriers to accessing TB services, creating a friendly environment for patients to complete treatment well and strengthening communities and society to create a pleasant and friendly environment for patients.
In terms of treatment, this is also part of the challenge for patients. According to Imran, the duration of treatment is long enough, so TB patients are often dismissed or dismissed from work because they are deemed unable to work properly during the treatment period.
Therefore, he added, later it is hoped that there will be TB treatment that allows the patient’s recovery to be shorter, for example two months.
“In the future there is a treatment regimen that lasts only two months, and TB RO patients in the future we hope there will be treatment that takes four months so that they can recover faster and return to their activities soon,” hoped Imran.
According to the Ministry of Health, referring to the 2022 Global TB report, it is known that the highest number of TB cases is in the productive age group, especially at the age of 25 to 34 years. In Indonesia, the highest number of TB cases is in the productive age group, especially at the age of 45 to 54 years.
Also read: FKUI researchers study short-term TB treatment, only two months
Also read: Ministry of Health: Indonesia has the second largest number of TB cases in the world
Also read: MPR Deputy Chairperson reminds that early detection of tuberculosis must be expanded
2023-08-24 15:53:36
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