The West Java Health Agency recorded 30,067 tuberculosis (TB) cases, 360 of them fatal, in the province as of the end of 2008, with a survival rate of around 84.2 percent.

The figure was an increase from the 29,243 cases in 2007.

“The classic problem found is patient noncompliance, where 7.6 percent of patients failed to recover because they did not undergo sputum tests and 4 percent discontinued their medication,” the agency’s Mien Hasanah said Monday in Bandung.

The World Health Organization’s 2008 global TB report ranks Indonesia third on the list of 22 “high burden” TB countries, behind China and India. About half a million new TB cases are detected here every year, where TB prevalence is estimated to be 253 per 100,000 people, the TB report said.

Indonesian Tuberculosis Eradication Association (PPTI) technical officer Fatimah Resmiati called for a heightened TB awareness drive in the public because each infected person could infect 10 other people.

She also said the community drive should be promoted to encourage more medicine intake observer (PMO) volunteers.

“We only have 780 PMO workers in West Java. Discipline in taking medicine is essential because many patients stop taking it; the virus becomes resistant if a patient misses out, and they can spread the disease everywhere,” Fatimah said at a press conference to mark World Tuberculosis Day on March 24.

The most effective medical treatment is the directly observed treatment short-course (DOTS), where patients take medication under medical supervision for the first two months before continuing on their own for the next six months.

Fatimah said every community health center and 40 of the 181 hospitals in West Java had implemented the DOTS.

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