Wiyagus Urges Students to Act as Frontline in Village-Level Tuberculosis Management
The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Akhmad Wiyagus, is encouraging the mobilisation of students from university consortia to serve as the frontline in strengthening tuberculosis (TB) management down to the village level. According to him, students can help address the shortage of healthcare workers, particularly in case tracking and providing direct education to the community.
“The presence of the Higher Education ranks brings not just a breath of fresh air, but fresh blood for us, because the Deputy Minister of Health and I are visiting not only at the provincial and regency levels, but down to the sub-district and village levels,” Wiyusc stated in his remarks on Thursday (3/9/2026).
He shared this during the Coordination Meeting of the University Consortium in Supporting Tuberculosis Management at the Office of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology in Jakarta, Thursday (3/9/2026).
Wiyagus also outlined the strategic stages of TB management, which aim for at least 90 per cent of suspected TB cases to receive diagnostic examinations. Similar targets have been set for contact tracing and the success rate of patient treatment.
He assessed that achieving these indicators is vital to ensuring that TB management is comprehensive and thorough. Consequently, Wiyagus requested that local governments (Pemda) ensure TB management programmes are included in the planning and budgeting documents of the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD).
Wiyagus emphasised that budgetary support is necessary so that the collaboration between local governments, universities, and students can be sustainable.
“This health issue is a mandatory government matter related to basic services; therefore, it is a legal obligation for local governments to include tuberculosis health management in planning documents, ranging from the RPJMD, RKPD, to the APBD,” he explained.
On this occasion, Wiyagus also expressed his appreciation for this cross-sector collaboration. He hopes this collective movement can accelerate the achievement of the national TB elimination target within the next three years.
“We at the Ministry of Home Affairs, as the implementer of the function of guidance and supervision of local government administration, will not tire of this, as it is part of the President’s priority programme, which targets the elimination of tuberculosis within three years,” he concluded.