"During the pandemic, the number of visits to community health facilities tends to decrease. This is becoming one of our challenges to achieve the treatment success rate (TSR) target of 90 percent," director of infectious disease prevention and control (P2PM) of the Ministry of Health, Didik Budijanto, said during the commemoration of World Tuberculosis Day, accessed online from Jakarta on Thursday.
Another challenge to reaching TSR of 90 percent has been the mobilization of health workers at health facilities for handling COVID-19 and conducting vaccination activities, he added.
"We know that COVID-19 has taken all of our resources, so we focus on that," Budijanto said.
In addition, active case finding by health facilities and communities has been hampered due to social restrictions.
"Now these are our challenges. We must be able to achieve the target that we have set," Budijanto said.
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He then outlined five tuberculosis recovery strategies in Indonesia.
The first is prevention through Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) immunization.
The second is case finding, detection, and surveillance. This strategy includes contact investigation and active discovery in the general and at-risk populations. It also covers enabling access to screening, diagnostic, and supporting facilities. It further includes active surveillance in health centers and hospitals and the provision of adequate human resources.
The third strategy is treatment. This involves a number of activities, such as providing TB diagnostic facilities or networks in all referral services, providing adequate and sustainable TB logistics, and monitoring patients’ medication.
Meanwhile, the fourth TB program recovery strategy is collaboration, partnership, and networking.
"This needs to be underlined. Such as coordination with relevant ministries/institutions, professional organizations, and the public. According to Presidential Decree Number 67 of 2021 concerning TB handling," Budijanto said.
The fifth strategy is behavior change by increasing public awareness regarding proper treatment and conducting behavior change campaigns, he added.
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Translator: Zubi Mahrofi, Resinta S
Editor: Suharto
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