Day: October 9, 2022

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Makassar Health Office seeking to eliminate TB through Friend app

The Health Office of Makassar City, South Sulawesi, is focusing on eliminating tuberculosis (TB) in the workplace through the Sobat TB (TB Friend) application.

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.

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.

 

Source: Antara News

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Kanjuruhan fact-finding team obtains more inputs from various parties

The joint independent fact-finding team for the Kanjuruhan Stadium tragedy is still investigating the incident by interviewing various relevant parties .

Suwarno, a team member, stated that the team had met security officers including those from the police and military guarding the football match on October 1, 2022 that led to a bloody stampede claiming 131 lives.

“We have obtained information from the on-site organizing committee, the stadium stewards, and the security officers, and today, the team has also visited Kanjuruhan Stadium. That information will be our input which we will process in Jakarta,” Suwarno said in a statement on Sunday.

The fact-finding team had also met representatives from Aremania — supporters of Arema FC — who survived and witnessed the stampede at the stadium on October 1, he noted.

Suwarno added that the team expected comprehensive inputs from all stakeholders to reach a strong investigation conclusion.

Meanwhile, fellow fact-finding team member Nugroho Setiawan, who is also AFC’s safety security officer, said that the preliminary conclusion of the investigation is that Kanjuruhan Stadium is not feasible to host high-risk football matches.

“(The stadium) might be able to host medium or low-risk matches, as thorough calculations needed for high-risk matches, for instance, on how to evacuate visitors in emergency situations, while I see (in the stadium), some entry gates are used as exit gates, which is inadequate; the stadium also lacking emergency doors,” Setiawan said.

He suggested the stadium has its gates structure improved and modified.

“We have also considered the access aspect, such as the stairs, according to the safety description,” the team member remarked.

The fact-finding team, established by the government on Monday (October 3) to investigate the tragedy, is being chaired by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD  with Youth and Sports Minister Zainudin Amali serving as the team’s deputy head and former deputy attorney general Nur Rochmad as the secretary.

 

 

Source: Antara News

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East Aceh flooding displaces 2,436 people: BNPB

Floods forced 2,436 residents of six sub-districts in East Aceh District, Aceh Province, to evacuate themselves to safer places, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

BNPB’s spokesman Abdul Muhari  in a  statement on Sunday, said that most  of the flood victims took refuge in village centers, meunasah (buildings for religious rituals), mosques, and dayah (traditional Islamic schools).

The flood-affected six sub-districts in East Aceh were Pante Bidari, Punaron, Birem Bayeun, Indra Makmur, Nurussalam, and Banda Alam .

“So far, 1,276 families or as many as 4,764 people have been affected, and 1,276 houses were flooded. This information was reported by the BNPB Operations Control Center based on data from the East Aceh District Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD),” Muhari said.

According to him, several areas were still inundated with waters reaching a height of up to 150 centimeters, he said.

East Aceh BPBD has coordinated with various parties to accelerate the emergency response. In addition, joint officers also remain on standby to monitor several areas that are still experiencing an increase in water discharge.

Based on the weather forecast of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) for the next three days, there is still potential for rain with light to moderate intensity in the East Aceh region on Monday (October 10). To this end, BNPB appealed to the residents to increase vigilance and preparedness.

Residents are expected to check the water discharge periodically when heavy rainfall occurs for a long period of time. Residents can also evacuate themselves to a safer place to avoid potential hydro-meteorological disasters.

On Friday , a landslide and floods hit several villages in East Aceh that resulted in road sections being covered in landslide materials and six power poles  damaged.

“Moderate to heavy rains had caused floods, with waters reaching a height of between 50-150 cm and a landslide in East Aceh,” Acting Chief of Aceh Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBA) Ilyas said in Banda Aceh, Aceh, on Saturday.

 

Source: Antara News

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Magnitude-5.5 earthquake jolts Banten

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 jolted Banten Province, on Sunday at 5:02 p.m. local time, the Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported.

The quake’s epicenter was located at 7.09 degrees southern latitude, 106.08 degrees eastern longitude, 26 km southwest of Bayah, Banten, and at a depth of 12 km.

The tremor was felt by residents of Bogor and Bekasi City, West Java Province.

 

Source: Antara News

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Booster dose still needed despite decline in COVID-19 cases: expert

The community still needs the third or booster COVID-19 vaccine dose even though COVID-19 cases have declined and the end of the pandemic is in sight, health expert Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama has said.

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that as of October 5, 2022, COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia had declined by 17 percent.

The professor, in a statement on Sunday, noted that in accordance with the statement of the Director General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, people must make maximum efforts in the last phase towards the end of the pandemic.

“These maximum efforts include the booster vaccination that we all need,” he remarked.

Aditama, who is the former director of infectious diseases at WHO South-East Asia and is currently a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Indonesia, said that Indonesia’s vaccination coverage still needs to be increased because so far, only around 62 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

According to him, the community needs to get the booster shot because the world is not in a completely safe situation yet. Data showed that several European countries experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases in the last few weeks.

He added that aside from the COVID-19 vaccine, people should also get vaccines for other diseases, such as influenza, meningitis, and pneumococcal vaccines.

“For some diseases, including COVID-19, we really need to get vaccines, whether there is a pandemic or not,” he remarked.

As part of efforts to boost community immunity, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 234,666,020 citizens.

According to data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of October 8, 2022, as many as 204,690,338 Indonesians have received the first vaccine dose, 171,310,100 have been administered the second dose, 64,007,521 have taken the third dose or first booster, and 637,548 have received the fourth dose or second booster.

 

Source: Antara News

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Indonesian Government needs to raise defense budget

The government needs to raise defense budget to increase the Indonesian Military (TNI)’s strength to thwart external threats to state defense, a lawmaker said.

Political support for the TNI’s budget has not been maximum, Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I Utut Adianto said on Sunday.

He made the remarks during a talk show held at the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) on the occasion of the TNI’s 77th anniversary .The talk show highlighted the history, pioneering and future design of TNI.

“Politics is a matter of support. The support for TNI’s budget has not shown what was talked about in the era of the fifth Indonesian president, Megawati Soekarnoputri,” he said.

Strengthening TNI is inevitable so that TNI must be strong, stay disciplined and receive budget support to strengthen national defense, he said.

“We want to see TNI getting stronger,” he said.

He said the defense budget which reaches Rp134 trillion is far from enough. Ideally, the defense budget should be twice or thrice as much as the current defense budget.

Meanwhile, former Air Force Chief of Staff Marshal (ret) Agus Supriatna highlighted several challenges to TNI in the future.

“There are three things that I need to talk about to face the present and future challenges. We must have national strategy and policy, prepare human resources and procure primary weapon system,” he said.

TNI’s defense strategy policy must adjust to regional and global geopolitical challenges, he said.

“The defense strategy policy must focus on the present challenge and threat of war, namely asymmetric war, cyber war and proxy war,” he said.

 

Source: Antara News

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