Head of Makassar Health Office Nursaidah Sirajuddin here on Sunday affirmed that her office is making efforts to support the government program on TB handling in the workplace.
"The TB Friend application aims to screen patients that may be infected with TB. Moreover, TB is an infectious disease. Thus, if detected, we will conduct treatment," she said.
Sirajuddin noted that her side had coordinated and synergized with all Government Regional Organizations (OPDs) and village governments to maximize early detection efforts in their respective offices.
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The health office has also encouraged state civil apparatuses (ASN) to use the TB Friend application so that they can monitor and take anticipatory measures against detected cases.
"We have been doing TB control in offices for a long time. Moreover, this is a central government policy, so it must be pushed and made successful," she remarked.
In strengthening coordination and synergy, the Makassar Health Office has also carried out a Monthly Interim Cohort Analysis (MICA) meeting to maximize monitoring of the TB patient cohort. The health office continues to encourage the emergence of innovations to improve TB case finding in the region.
Earlier, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin noted that the government is aiming to achieve 90 percent detection of TB cases nationwide by 2024 through the improvement of disease surveillance strategies.
The government is exerting efforts to eliminate TB by 2030 to achieve an incidence rate of 65 out of every 100 thousand residents and a fatality rate of six out of every 100 thousand residents.
According to the Global TB Report in 2021, the number of tuberculosis cases in Indonesia was estimated at 824 thousand, yet only 48 percent, or equal to 393,323 of them, were reported to the national database.
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Translator: Abdul Kadir, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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