dantechviews.com – Tuberculosis or TB is a chronic disease that is contagious and deadly, with a death rate of 17 people per hour. Based on the 2023 Global TB Report, Indonesia is the second country with the highest number of TB cases after India with an estimated 1,060,000 cases and a death rate of 134,000 per year. This figure is higher than in previous years.
Director of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (P2PM) Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) dr. Imran Pambudi said that the increase in TB discoveries in 2023 would increase to 77%, namely 820,789 cases, with 134,528 cases of TB being discovered in children. This increase in discoveries is a good thing in efforts to eliminate TB.
“Discovery of cases is good because we can treat them immediately and they can be treated immediately so they don’t spread it to other people,” said the Director of P2PM at a media meeting via zoom meeting on Friday (22/3/2024).
Dr. Imran continued, TB control is also contained in presidential regulation number 67 of 2021, which discusses TB control arrangements and strategies.
“The only country that has a presidential decree related to tuberculosis is Indonesia, because the president said the TB problem is not only a health problem, but several ministries and sectors must also take responsibility for this,” said Dr. Imran.
Dr. Imran continued, various efforts to accelerate TB handling have been carried out through various pillars, namely prevention, health promotion, detection, treatment and surveillance, as well as across sectors.
First, preventing TB by holding outreach meetings to expand the provision of preventive therapy. Second, health promotion by carrying out TB campaigns with the community and multisectors on TB commemorations and national health days.
Third, detection, treatment and surveillance with active case finding in household contacts and at-risk populations such as prisons/remand centers throughout 2022-2023. The government is also launching the use of the BPaL/M treatment regimen nationally starting January 2024 after initial implementation in 4 provinces.
Fourth, multi-sectoral collaboration, namely holding a TB High-Level Meeting (HLM) to monitor the involvement of 19 ministries in efforts to end TB, as well as establishing a Partnership Forum for the Acceleration of TB Control (WKPTB) involving 19 ministries and 35 partners.
Other efforts made by the Ministry of Health through P2PM, namely holding meetings with the Coordinating Ministry for PMK and other ministries to discuss Shelter Homes for Drug Resistant TB (RO) patients, TB coaching, namely mentoring activities for TB program health workers (doctors, nurses, pharmacies, lab technicians ), and optimizing TB case detection through collaborative screening and contact investigation activities with cadres/communities. Online training for health workers through the TB E-learning platform, a motivational communication workshop for tuberculosis survivor organizations, and a TB program logistics planning workshop have also been carried out.
Chairman of Central TB KOPI Prof. Dr. Erlina Burhan, who was also a resource person at the press conference, explained that TB disease can be treated and prevented through Tuberculosis Prevention Therapy (TPT).
“TPT is a treatment given to someone who is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and is at risk of developing TB,” said Prof. Erlina.
The impact of TPT in eliminating Tuberculosis is that it can reduce the risk of TB by 24-86% in all at-risk populations, including those diagnosed with latent TB. Reduces the risk of TB or death from TB in HIV patients who regularly take ARVs by up to 60%. Pediatric patients who consume TPT reduce their risk of TB by up to 82%. Said Prof. Erlina.
The latest report on case investment confirms that the implementation of TB screening together with TB preventive therapy (TPT) has great potential in reducing the number of cases and deaths due to TB. The report emphasizes that investment in public health is crucial to meeting the needs of vulnerable populations and achieving global targets to end TB.
In 2022, WHO recorded significant recovery globally in improving access to TB diagnosis and treatment services. That year also marked the highest number of case notifications globally since global TB monitoring was initiated by WHO in 1995.
TB case notifications in Indonesia will also increase in 2022, with TB discoveries reaching 724,000 cases. Then, that number increased to 821,000 in 2023, which was the highest figure since 1995.
Even though there has been an increase in case notifications, increasing access to TPT is still slow. Preventing TB infection and preventing the progression of infection to disease is the key to reducing the number of TB cases as targeted in WHO’s End TB Strategy.
Currently, TPT achievement in Indonesia is still below 2% of the national target of 58%. This shows that the collaboration of partners, stakeholders and communities from various regions to join efforts to integrate active case finding and offer TPT to people living with HIV (PLHIV), household contacts and close contacts of TB patients, and other high-risk groups is very important. needed. Involvement and cooperation from all parties will greatly determine the success of efforts to reduce the burden of TB in Indonesia and globally.
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