Medication too pricey for 50% of TB sufferers

Medication too pricey for 50% of TB sufferers

JAKARTA (JP): About 50 percent of the 500,000 Indonesians
taking medication for their tuberculosis (TB) stop half-way
through the course of treatment because they are too poor to
continue it, a health activist said yesterday.

Chairwoman of the Indonesian Foundation for Tuberculosis
Eradication Mrs. Soepardjo Rustam said that the price of the
second round of medication is more expensive than the first.

TB can be cured within six months, she said, but many
sufferers who undergo medical treatment fail to complete the
entire process; some because they are too poor, others because
they think they have already recovered the moment they stop
coughing.

"Consequently, they have to repeat the medication," she said
after meeting with President Soeharto.

Community health centers can ask for free TB medicine from the
association for poor patients," Mrs. Soepardjo, wife of the late
coordinating minister for people's welfare, said.

According to her, TB bacteria can be found everywhere and
people who are physically or mentally tired are particularly
prone to contracting the disease.

She said her foundation offers Rp 80,000 (US$34) in transport
costs to all TB patient who are too poor to go to the nearest
health center for further medication.

She said that there are currently about 500,000 Indonesians
suffering from contagious TB and guessed that there are about
500,000 others who have not reported their illness.

In 1993 the World Health Organization estimated that 1.9
billion people, or one in every three worldwide, are infected
with the disease. In the next decade, 300 million more people
will become infected, 90 million people will develop the disease,
and 30 million people will die of it, according to the
organization's research. (ste)