Thousands to help with TB detection in Depok

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The Depok administration is deploying 6,845 community-based tuberculosis (TB) assistants, a higher number than other cities and regencies in the country, to detect sufferers in the early stages of the disease.

Depok Mayor Nur Mahmudi Ismail says the administration is targeting zero growth of TB with the help of the new assistants who will survey every part of the municipality, which has a population of 1.8 million.

"We are engaging different people to join our team: teachers, school students, university students, military personnel and police officers," he said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the inauguration of the new assistants at the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) in Cilodong, Depok.

"They are all aware [of the importance] of early detection so that sufferers of the disease can receive immediate treatment."

Nur Mahmudi said the assistants had acquired knowledge about the disease in terms of how to prevent it and how to treat it. They could also assist TB sufferers in taking their medicine.

He also called on Depok residents to immediately visit their doctors if they believed they had become infected with the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, which causes tuberculosis.

"The sooner the disease is discovered, the better [for the patients]. And don't worry, all TB treatment is free of charge," he said.

Kostrad Division I Cilodong commander Maj. Gen. Daniel Ambat said his soldiers were ready to support the administration in combating TB.

"Fighting TB is mandatory to have a healthy society with high productivity to help develop the nation," said Daniel.

Depok is ranked 19th for the number of TB sufferers nationwide.

The Depok Health Agency said it found 283 new cases in the first three months of the year and had cured 656 TB sufferers out of a total of 1,980 suspected TB sufferers.

However, agency head Hardiono could not provide either the exact number of TB sufferers or the number of TB-related deaths for 2012.

Smoking, nocturnal lifestyles and air pollution are believed to be contributory factors in causing TB.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Southeast Asian division reported that Indonesia was one of the top-five Asian countries in treating TB, with a 90 percent success rate.

Symptoms of TB:

• Chronic cough for more than three weeks
• Nighttime fever and cold sweat
• Constant malaise
• Loss of appetite
• Reduced body weight
• Chest pains
• Coughing up blood