Respiratory diseases number one killer in Indonesia

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Respiratory diseases have become the number one killer in Indonesia, up from number three in 1997 and number six in 1993, an expert says.

Pulmonologist Ida Bernida said on Thursday that air pollution had worsened in the past decade, exacerbating respiratory diseases, including tuberculosis (TBC), asthma, lung cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and pneumonia.

"An increase in the number of smokers, particularly among women and youths, and forests fires have only worsened air pollution in the country," Ida told The Jakarta Post Thursday.

He said cardiovascular diseases and cancer were the number two and three killers respectively.

To make things worse, Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, had only 500 pulmologists across the country. This means one pulmonologist was in charge of 420,000 people, for above the ideal number of 10,000.

Another pulmonologist, Manaldi Rasmin, said up to 40 percent of the deaths in the country were caused by respiratory diseases.

Both Ida and Manaldi, however, failed to provide data on the number of deaths.

Jakarta is now the third worst city in terms of air pollution after Mexico and Bangkok.

The number of smokers in the country is the fourth largest in the world, while for forests fire Indonesia becomes number one now, according to Menaldi.

Changing lifestyle and patient's habits to find self- medication, including antibiotics as well as low awareness on continued medication have also caused respiratory diseases to become so deadly.

"Some people buy medicine without a doctor's prescription and consume them without following the suggested dosage. In some cases that would make the disease even worse," said Menaldi.

"In most respiratory diseases, a patient needs continued medication for a certain period until they are cured but some people just stop it when they feel better".

For TBC, Indonesia is now has the highest rate of infection after India and China.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are about 175,000 deaths from TBC every year in Indonesia and the number is increasing.

Meanwhile for asthma, Menaldi said about 6 percent of Indonesians suffered from the chronic disease. Most cases happened in big cities where the air pollution was relatively high.

"Vehicle emissions, cigarette smoke, and industrial smoke are easily found in big cities such as Jakarta. One of every 10 junior high school students in Jakarta has asthma," he said.