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Govt looks to grassroots communities to bolster fight against TB
The government has scaled up efforts against tuberculosis by empowering local communities and strengthening health facilities down to the village and subdistrict levels for the early detection and treatment of the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
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Early detection is key: A health worker (left) takes a chest X-ray of a patient on March 21, 2023, at Tangerang City General Regional Hospital in Banten. (Antara/Fauzan)
T
he government has scaled up efforts against tuberculosis by empowering local communities and strengthening health facilities down to the village and subdistrict levels for the early detection and treatment of the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
The initiative coincided with a plan for 2,000 Indonesians to be involved in the third and final phase of clinical trials for a Gates Foundation-backed TB vaccine, which the government says has already been declared safe in the previous stages.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin launched on Friday the Desa Siaga Tuberculosis (TB-aware villages) movement, which enlists community leaders and local government agencies to help health workers scale up testing, tracing and treatment at the grassroots level.
Budi said that although TB is highly curable and health community centers are equipped with medicines to treat the disease, poor detection was a major contributor to the 125,000 tuberculosis-related deaths nationwide last year.
“When I assumed office [in 2020], the number of reported cases [annually] was around 400,000. The figure is now up to 800,000, but we aim to detect at least 1 million cases this year,” he said.
The TB-aware villages are also expected to help ensure that patients complete their treatment, which can last up to six months, or risk spreading drug-resistant strains.
“If they stop [taking their medications], they can instead develop a resistance [to medicines] which makes any future treatment more difficult,” Budi said.
