JAKARTA: International Tuberculosis Day, which fell on March 24, passed without much media coverage in Indonesia, despite the fact that tuberculosis (TB) is the third deadliest disease in the country, after cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. This is somewhat surprising, considering that TB is not a new illness, and medication is therefore readily available to all.
The latest report received from the World Health Organization (WHO) is alarming: Every year, Indonesia records more than 583,000 new TB cases, which means it is the country with the third largest number of TB cases in the world, after densely populated India and China.
