United to End Tuberculosis in Indonesia’s 2022 G20 Presidency

PDPI is committed to increasing TB discovery and notification activities. How, efforts to eliminate TB can learn from the handling of COVID-19. It requires collaboration and cooperation, both professional organizations and other stakeholders. The involvement of elements from all walks of life, both at the government and community levels is needed.

“Not only collaborative work, of course, must be active. If it’s not active, it’s meaningless. So, we have to be active individually and as an organization to increase TB case finding actively compared to just passively waiting for patients in the hospital,” Erlina Burhan explained.

“The quality of tuberculosis services must be improved. Not only collaboration but also with various efforts and must not be passive, must be active and don’t forget that stigma continues to exist in society. One way to get rid of the stigma is good education to the community through social media online. Let’s take advantage of all digital platforms for public education.”

Current efforts to diagnose TB have used the Molecular Rapid Test (TCM) method. TCM is actually used for the diagnosis of TB. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TCM was also used for COVID-19, so the TB diagnosis was somewhat neglected. Even so, the diagnosis of TB can be made through the examination of Acid Fast Bacteria (BTA).

The COVID-19 pandemic, continued Erlina, also had an impact on the evaluation of TB treatment. TB treatment should be carried out until completion. However, there is a decrease in the success of treatment because many people are afraid to leave the house and are afraid to return to the hospital. Therefore, TB diagnosis and TB services for treatment management must be improved.

“Starting from the initial phase, it is important that the treatment is completed, he should recover. If recovered, we have made efforts to prevent drug-resistant TB. Treating and curing TB patients who are still sensitive to drugs is the same as taking preventive measures,” he explained.

“Well, to finish treatment, the evaluation must really be carried out properly and don’t forget that there is actually a group that has also been neglected so far, namely the latent TB infection group. If they are not treated, they have the potential to become active TB.”

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