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)