Tempo.Co, Rini Kustiani, Jakarta – Indonesia ranks third in the world in the number of tuberculosis cases after India and China with a total of 824,000 cases and a fatality rate of 93,000 annually. The Health Ministry reported that at this rate, 11 deaths are recorded in each passing hour statistically.

The ministry's director of communicable disease prevention and control (P2PM), Didi Budijanto, on Tuesday said that the government will conduct a large-scale screening for TB this year as he estimates there is only 49 percent of TB sufferers who are taking medication.

"This means there are around 500,000 patients that have not sought medication and risks being a source of transmission," he said on March 22.

He reminded people about the importance of swift handling once a TB case is found and the essential treatment a patient must complete in order to properly cure tuberculosis. The Health Ministry, he added, is set to check the possible 500,000 cases that have not been discovered.

Utilizing x-ray checkup equipment with the assistance of artificial intelligence will be able to produce TB diagnosis results more quickly and efficiently. The government also plans to use a bi-directional testing method for diabetics to get tuberculosis treatment as early as possible. Currently, the government is seeking to procure these tools.

With these checking efforts, Didik hopes that by 2030 Indonesia will really be able to control tuberculosis. As many as 91 percent of TB cases in Indonesia are pulmonary TB which has the potential to be transmitted to people around the patient. The highest case finding and treatment for tuberculosis were in Banten, Gorontalo, Jakarta, North Sulawesi, and West Sulawesi.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1574666/tuberculosis-in-indonesia-causes-11-deaths-every-hou