TB prevalent despite 30 year campaign

TB prevalent despite 30 year campaign

JAKARTA (JP): After a 30 year campaign, Indonesia has failed
to eradicate tuberculosis which has long remained the number two
killer after cardiovascular diseases, an official said yesterday.

"We must admit that our effort over the last 30 years to wipe
out tuberculosis has not yet brought any success," said Nyoman
Kumara Rai, the director general for public health supervision at
the Ministry of Health.

"The disease's prevalence remains the same as 30 years ago,"
he said, adding that 250 out of 100,000 Indonesians are infected
by tuberculosis (TB) yearly.

"With a total population of 200 million people, this means
that approximately 500,000 Indonesians are infected every year,"
Kumara said after speaking at a one-day seminar on tuberculosis
here yesterday.

Of the approximate 500,000 annual cases, about 175,000
reportedly die each year, according to a 1994 survey conducted by
the Indonesian government and the World Health Organization
(WHO).

Indonesia first launched its TB-eradication program in 1969.

In 1994, the number of people cured from TB only reached 60
percent. The global cure rate target of the WHO is 85 percent of
all TB patients.

Kumara explained that Indonesia's previously poor achievements
in its effort to eradicate TB might be attributable to poor
diagnoses and a shortage of laboratory equipment and skilled
medical personnel.

Kumara, who is one of the chairpersons at the National
Committee for the Eradication of TB, also attributed the current
difficulties to poor discipline on the part of patients.

Patients have to take their medication for a period of either
six months or one year. The disease often becomes more serious if
people forget to take their medicine -- which happens too often
because they feel normal after one or two months of treatment.

Kumara said the government will develop a new strategy for its
fight against TB that places more emphasis on the education of
laboratory and medical assistants. (09)