RI rank third in TB stakes

RI rank third in TB stakes

Leony Aurora , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The rate of tuberculosis (TB) has declined steadily in the past
few years but the country remains among those with the highest
number of TB patients, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to WHO, the rate dropped from an estimated 130 per
100,000 people in 1999 to 122 in 2001, and further down to 115 in
2002.

It also said that Indonesia, the world's fourth largest
country with over 215 million people, was third after China and
India in terms of the number of patients.

Meanwhile, a report by University of Indonesia (UI)
researchers, concluded that the disease costs the country some Rp
8.3 trillion (US$963 million) annually.

"About 75 percent of TB patients are in their productive age
-- between 15 and 49 years," said researcher Prastuti Chusnun of
UI's Health Economy Research Center.

TB infects about 583,000 people and kills 140,000 every year,
making it the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular
diseases.

The government, according to Minister for Health Achmad
Sujudi, has provided free drugs for TB patients.

He, however, called on regencies and municipalities to
allocate funds for free sputum examinations in public health
centers and other necessities.

"The challenges now lie on how to inform the poor about the
free drugs available for them and on the commitment of local
administrations," the minister stated during a journalist's forum
on Tuesday.

The ministry's Director of Communicable Diseases Umar Fahmi
Achmadi said the government was focused mostly on improving
infrastructure and human resource capacity to manage TB.

"Ninety-nine percent of public health centers have adopted
DOTS. Lung clinics have also joined in," he said, adding that now
the ministry was ready to launch a campaign to inform the public
about TB.

DOTS is the acronym for Direct Observed Treatment, Short-
course, an internationally recommended strategy for controlling
TB, which was introduced in Indonesia in 1995.

The program's success lies with the health workers, trained
volunteers and family members, who observe and record patients
taking their daily medicine over the full course of anti-TB
treatment, which lasts between six and eight months.

Patients have to complete the course, as otherwise the TB will
not be completely eradicated and will reemerge.

With DOTS, Indonesia's TB treatment success rate -- the number
of patients recovering fully from TB -- has reached 86.3 percent.

Case detection rate (CDR) is also increasing. In 1997,
Indonesia's CDR stood at mere 7.5 percent of all assumed cases
and rose to 20 percent in 2000 and 41.3 percent in 2003.

"We hope to reach 60 percent by the end of this year," said
Umar.

WHO has set international targets of 70 percent for CDR and 85
percent for success rate by 2005.