Fight against TB gets a boost from abroad
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)