Tuberculosis remains number two killer

JAKARTA (JP): Despite decades of hard work to eradicate tuberculosis, the disease remains the number two killer in Indonesia, an expert said yesterday.

Pulmonologist Hadiarto Mangunnegoro, head of respiratory diseases at University of Indonesia's School of Medicine, said that Indonesia's number one killer is coronary disease.

"Although the government has spent years, there is little that people with tuberculosis can expect," Hadiarto told a media conference yesterday.

He said the death rate among tuberculosis sufferers is high due to the lack of treatment rather than the failure of medication.

The conference was held to announce the planned 14th Asia Pacific Congress on Diseases of the Chest and the 7th national congress of the Indonesian Association of Pulmonologists in Denpasar, Bali, from June 23 to June 27.

Also on hand were other specialists, such as pulmonologist Yudanarso Dawud, cardiovascular expert Syukri Karim, and Tarmizi Hakim, an expert on thoracic and cardiovascular surgery.

The lack of treatment, according to Hadiarto, is mainly owing to patients' inability to afford the cost since patients are generally from poor families.

Citing an example, he said that for six-months treatment of tuberculosis, a patient must pay between Rp 100,000 (US$42.50) and Rp 200,000 at government-owned community health centers.

"But if the sufferer goes to a private practitioner he has to pay four to five times more," Hadiarto said.

According to Hadiarto, about 50 percent of patients undergoing therapy stop the treatment for different reasons.

According to 1992 official data, there were about 500,000 people suffering contagious tuberculosis and another 1,000,000 non-contagious tuberculosis patients throughout Indonesia. (31)