Indonesia is set to invest an additional AUS$37.5 million (US$33.1 million) to supplement its health budget in the flight against tuberculosis (TB), malaria and HIV/AIDS.
The investment is part of a joint program between Indonesia and Australia. The governments agreed to forgive an AUS$75-million debt owed by Indonesian to Australia as part of the Debt2Health program, a Finance Ministry official said Thursday.
Australia will write off half of its debt if Indonesia channels the remaining half to the Debt2Health program.
The Debt2Health program was expected to reduce the country’s foreign debt and to enhance public health programs to combat HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria — the latter two of which were entirely preventable and curable, said Rahmat Waluyanto, the Finance Ministry’s debt management director general.
“Indonesia has the third highest rate of tuberculosis in the world and more than 90,000 people die from the disease every year,” he said.
TB is one of the biggest killers in Indonesia, with 300 deaths from the disease each day, according to reports.
Dr. Chalik Masulili of the Global Fund — an international financing institution in charge of disbursement — said the Debt2Health funds would be distributed to finance the procurement of expensive TB, malaria and anti-retroviral drugs.
Unsubsidized anti-TB drugscan cost as much as Rp 520,000 (US$57.70) for a five-day supply. Treatment, which lasts from six to 12 months, will be available for free at government-run public health centers, he said.
“The investment will also be geared toward the improvement of directly observed, short-term treatment, known as DOTS, to tackle TB,” he said.
The Debt2Health initiative would help the Health Ministry and non-governmental organizations to develop health-related projects to work together more effectively to fight the diseases, Chalik added.
Robert Fillip, chairman of the Innovative Financing Global Fund, said an independent body consisting of members of the government, academia and the private sector would be in charge of monitoring disbursement.
Debt2Health’s initiative would ensure TB patients receive continuous and monitored treatment. Patients in developing countries sometimes stop taking the medication when they feel free of symptoms, leading the contagion to multiply, develop drug resistance or eventually cause deaths, Fillip added.
Rizal Affandi, Deputy for the Economic Cooperation and International Financing at the Economics Coordinating Ministry, said Debt2Health was agreed upon by the Indonesian government with creditor countries under the Paris Club grouping.
The Indonesian government, he said, had implemented projects under a debt swap mechanism with four countries: Germany, United States, Italy, and Australia.
Germany previously supported the Debt2Health program by repurposing a 50-million euro debt held by Indonesia.
Earlier this month, the government targeted reducing cases of TB by 50 percent, from 443 out of 100,000 citizens in 1990, to 222 by 2015.
The Ministry of Health recorded 1.1 million cases of malaria in 2009, while the AIDS Control Commission said there had been more than 20,500 AIDS cases since Jan. 1987, and 4,000 had died from it. (tsy/ebf)
