WARTAKOTALIVE.COM, TANGERANG – Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world and is included in the category of threatening disease, and has a high risk of death.
TB is an infectious disease that attacks the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body.
And on the commemoration of World TB Day last Thursday, March 24, 2022, the Tangerang City Health Office released TB data during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was recorded that in 2020, 3,908 cases of TB were found, with 78 of them or 2.2 percent of them died.
Meanwhile, in 2021, 4,414 TB cases were found, 35 of them or 0.8 percent died.
With this data, the Tangerang City Health Office revealed that the risk of death from TB disease is almost the same as compared to exposure to Covid-19 in the last two years.
Responding to this, Lecturer of the Faculty of Nursing at Pelita Harapan University, Theresia said, the risk of death from tuberculosis in the last two years was similar, because during the Covid-19 pandemic, people had difficulty undergoing TB treatment.
The reason is, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tangerang City Government implemented various restrictions on community activities, especially the number of hospitals being converted for Covid-19 patients.
“The cause of almost the same death rate for TB patients during this pandemic is because these TB patients have difficulty getting treatment, because of the limited conditions that occurred at that time because Covid-19 cases were high,” said Theresia, Thursday (31/3/2022).
“Indeed, the Covid-19 disease is caused by a virus and TB is caused by the bacteria, but the priority treatment is Covid-19 patients, even though these two diseases are indeed a threat to public health,” he added.
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