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Govt scales up TB surveillance as caseload rises after COVID-19
The government aims to significantly reduce tuberculosis incidence in the country by 2030, after the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted its TB response and treatment program.
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A health worker administers the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine for tuberculosis to an infant on June 9, 2022, during a national childhood immunization program at a Posyandu (integrated health services post) in Banda Aceh. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
T
he government is boosting its surveillance of tuberculosis (TB) as the number of cases increases nationwide, after the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted its TB response and treatment program.
According to recently released data from the Health Ministry, the government last year tracked down more than 700,000 out of an estimated total of 969,000 TB cases in the country, or roughly 74 percent, the highest in 27 years.
During the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 and 2020, health authorities detected no more than 46 percent and 48 percent of total TB cases, respectively.
Health Ministry spokesman Mohammad Syahril said the government would continue to increase testing for TB, aiming to detect 90 percent of all estimated cases by 2024.
"Detection is the first step to treating tuberculosis patients. That's why starting from 2022, the Health Ministry carried out tuberculosis testing on a massive scale," Syahril said recently.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin previously said the ministry aimed to detect at least 60,000 tuberculosis cases per month this year by applying a variety of technologies, such as mobile X-ray services, rapid molecular diagnostic tests and cutting-edge mobile genome sequencing machines.
Read also: Do not overlook threat of TB during COVID-19 pandemic, says Jokowi
