KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO
A medical officer marks the arm of a resident undergoing a Mantoux test during the “Active Case Finding TB” activity at the Larangan District office, Tangerang City, Banten, Thursday (5/1/2023).
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – During the Covid-19 pandemic, all attention was paid to treating various diseases. This makes efforts to control diseases other than Covid-19 suboptimal and uncontrollable. Reports of an increase in cases currently occurring are predicted to continue to increase.
Director of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases at the Ministry of Health, Imran Pambudi, when met at the Ministry of Health office in Jakarta, Wednesday (20/12/2023), said that cases of neglected infectious diseases such as rabies and leprosy, as well as other infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, were reported to continue to increase. This happened because during the pandemic, efforts to find new cases decreased significantly.
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If new cases are not found, it means they cannot be treated and treated immediately, so the risk of transmission is increasingly widespread. Apart from that, treatment efforts in the community during the pandemic have also decreased because most people are afraid and worried about coming to health facilities.
If new cases are not found, it means they cannot be treated and treated immediately, so the risk of transmission is increasingly widespread. Apart from that, treatment efforts in the community during the pandemic have also decreased.
“The increase in cases of tuberculosis, leprosy and rabies is expected to continue to increase for 2-3 years after the pandemic. “This must be anticipated by starting to strengthen case detection in the community again,” he said.
Referring to data from the Ministry of Health, the trend in reported cases of tuberculosis deaths is increasing. In fact, the number of tuberculosis cases found is decreasing. As of December 18, 2023, deaths due to tuberculosis that occurred in 2023 reached 20,867 cases. This is an increase from 2018 when 10,682 cases were reported, 12,469 cases in 2019, 13,110 cases in 2020, and 14,152 cases in 2021.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
Tuberculosis case trend data
Meanwhile, there were 570,289 cases of tuberculosis found in 2018, in 2019 there were 568,987 cases, in 2020 there were 393,323 cases, in 2021 there were 443,235 cases, and in 2023 it has only increased again to 768,422 cases.
Increased cases also occurred in leprosy and rabies. In leprosy, the number of cases recorded until the third quarter of 2023 reached 18,886 cases. This figure is even higher than in 2018 when 18,529 cases were reported. In rabies cases, an increase was not only found in the number of cases of bites from rabies-infecting animals but also in the death rate.
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The number of animal bites that transmit rabies in 2018 was reported to be 80,617 cases. It increased to 94,841 cases in 2019 and began to decline in 2021 to 57,257 cases. After that, a significant increase was reported to at least 154,877 cases as of November 2023. Meanwhile, in terms of deaths, in 2018 it was reported as many as 111 cases, in 2019 as many as 105 cases, in 2021 as many as 62 cases, and 117 cases in 2023.
Imran said that efforts to control infectious diseases in society must be increased again. Prevention, case finding and surveillance efforts need to be strengthened so that cases in the community can be handled immediately so that transmission does not spread further.
DEONISIA ARLINTA
Director of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, Ministry of Health, Imran Pambudi
“Public awareness and willingness to be examined and treated is also very important as the key to controlling infectious diseases. “Mitigation efforts are also well prepared to anticipate if cases increase,” he said.
Countermeasures
Separately, the Director of Postgraduate Studies at Yarsi University who is also a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said that various warnings had actually been conveyed to various stakeholders not to neglect efforts to control other infectious diseases during the Covid-19 pandemic. The threat of other infectious diseases will increase if control efforts are relaxed.
According to him, when a pandemic occurs, there is not only a decline in efforts to examine and find cases in the community, but also in efforts to educate, prevent and treat. Therefore, efforts to control various diseases must be carried out better than before the pandemic to overcome backwardness.
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“We have several targets for controlling infectious diseases and these targets must be achieved by implementing a clear road map. We must immediately be able to eliminate and even eradicate several neglected infectious diseases. These cases are few in number but they are not disappearing. “So, commitment is needed so that it can be eliminated,” said Tjandra.
2023-12-20 12:40:30
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