AKURAT.CO, The District Health Office of Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU) of South Sumatra is trying to reduce the number of TB spread by tracking patients suffering from the disease.
“TB case tracking needs to be done because more and more are found, it must be faster to break the chain of spread,” said Head of Disease Prevention and Control Division of the OKU Health Service, Andi Prapto in Baturaja, Thursday (20/05/2021).
He explained that tracking this case was through close contact examinations of TB patients so that they could be handled quickly and received medical attention.
The OKU Health Office also provides free medical treatment for TB patients for six months in all hospital services in the local area.
“The OKU Regency Government will also build an integrated laboratory for Bio Safety Level 2 (BSL2) this year to conduct self-checks on specimens of various infectious diseases, including tuberculosis,” he said.
Tuberculosis or also known as TB is a lung disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
This disease causes several symptoms in the form of a cough that lasts a long time, weakness, weight loss, lack of appetite, chest pain and night sweats.
This disease is easily transmitted to humans who have low immunity through the sprinkling of saliva that comes out of the TB sufferer when talking, coughing and sneezing.
In OKU Regency itself, he said, in 2020, nine citizens died as a result of being infected with tuberculosis.
“Of the 870 patients suffering from TB in 2020, nine of them died. For this year, only 26 TB cases have been recorded in OKU,” he said.[]
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