Fight against TB gets a boost from abroad

JAKARTA (JP): The Dutch government has donated Rp 150 million (US$42,000) to the provincial health office in Irian Jaya to help cure 1,500 sufferers of tuberculosis in the province, Antara reported yesterday.

Office head Slamet said the funds channeled through a Dutch epidemics fighting body here, NSL, was an annual donation which has run for several years to help the fight against the burgeoning disease in the villages of Merauke and Jayawijaya.

He was quoted by the news agency as saying that the money would be used for funding the medical treatment of the sufferers which would last for six months.

However, despite the donation and medical relief dispatched by NSL and the government, Slamet said the remoteness of villages often hampered efforts to provide medical treatment.

In light of the matter, Slamet said, his office had decided to cooperate with local churches and missions whose representatives are widely spread throughout the region.

He said unless villagers with tuberculosis received regular treatment, it would be the same as if the villagers received no treatment at all because irregular treatment was ineffective.

Slamet could not give the total number of people suffering from tuberculosis in Irian Jaya, but he said the magnitude of the disease demanded special attention from all related parties.

In East Kalimantan's capital, Samarinda, a government official said Tuesday that the disease is the number one killer in Indonesia, Antara reported.

East Kalimantan Vice Governor Chaider Hafidz said about 175,000 Indonesians die of tuberculosis annually despite government efforts to improve public health.

"Besides HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), tuberculosis has also become a serious threat for our people," he was quoted as saying.

He made the statement at a signing ceremony for an agreement between the province, the World Health Organization, the provincial health office, Rio Tinto Health Center and the Indonesian Society for Eradicating Tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis is a serious, infectious disease that afflicts human lungs. The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged governments worldwide to keep fighting the disease.

Citing the number of tuberculosis cases in the province, Hafidz said about 0.29 percent of the province's two million inhabitants are infected with the disease.

WHO official Yacoba Sekkian said the spread of tuberculosis has been growing in line with the increasing number of people with HIV/AIDS.

"Tuberculosis tends to affect those in productive ages, people aged between 15 and 49 years old, so it may endanger a nation's human development," he was quoted as saying. (aan)