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Innovative, life-changing tools key to ending TB epidemic
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A health worker prepares to administer a drug to a patient at the Tuberculosis Multi Drug Resistant Polyclinic in Persahabatan Hospital in Jakarta on Feb. 4, 2022. (Kompas/Lucky Pransiska)
T
he government, together with global health leaders and partners, has called for swift action to end the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic through innovative approaches.
Ending TB requires new tools for early and efficient prevention, diagnosis and treatment, the group agreed at a recent lung health conference highlighting the severity of the disease, which resurged last month as the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said global health partners and industry leaders could help develop a vision for transforming the way countries prevented, detected and treated TB.
He said Indonesia was committed to ending the global TB epidemic, which he said was, by some measures, more deadly than COVID-19.
“Upon learning about TB, I was quite surprised that as of today, TB has killed more than 1 billion people worldwide. That means TB [has killed] more people than COVID-19,” Budi said during The Union World Conference on Lung Health 2024’s welcome event on Wednesday of last week.
Held in Nusa Dua, Bali, from Tuesday to Saturday, the conference, which was organized by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and hosted by the government, gathered lung experts from around the world to discuss innovations to end TB as a public health threat.
The Global TB Report 2024 estimated that the number of new TB cases was stabilizing, with 10.8 million recorded in 2023, only a slight rise from 10.7 million in 2022.
