TB can be transmitted among the children during their interactions with others in school, he said in a press statement that ANTARA received from the ministry here Tuesday.
Rondonuwu remarked that TB was caused by infection with mycobacterium tuberculosis, a bacterium that can be transmitted when an infected person sneezes or coughs.
According to the ministry’s press release, school age is when children study in educational units and actively interact with several friends, teachers, and people in school.
Rondonuwu noted that the TB Care School Guidelines had been readied and can serve as a guide and program standard for educational units in developing patterns of efforts to prevent TB transmission.
During a virtual event to disseminate information on the TB Care School Guidelines on Monday, Rondonuwu highlighted that School Health Business (UKS) supervisors at the provincial and district/city levels could make efforts to prevent TB in schools.
Related news: Indonesia set to forge forward in TB handling amid COVID-19 pandemic
The guidelines encompass efforts to disseminate information regarding the transmission of TB as well as efforts to prevent, examine, and treat the disease.
According to the Global TBC Report 2020 data, Indonesia is the country with the second-highest TB burden after India, with an estimated 845 thousand TB cases per year, and the death rate from TB annually reaches around 98 thousand, or equivalent to 11 deaths in an hour.
According to the Health Ministry’s data, the number of deaths from COVID-19 in a year since March 2020 had reached 46 thousand, and that figure was merely about half of the number of deaths from the disease during the same period.
In 2019, the number of TB cases in Indonesia was estimated to reach 142 thousand, of which some 17 percent were cases of TB in children.
However, only 63,113 cases of TB in children were found, or 62 percent of the 101,160 cases of TB in children that should have been found and treated. The case finding rate is still below the target set at 75 percent. Related news: Only 24% tuberculosis patients have accessed health service facilities
Translator: Andi Firdaus, Katriana
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
