Malang, Infopublic – The number of cases of Tuberculosis (TBC) or TB in Indonesia is ranked second in the world. In 2022, there are 2,429 TB cases found in Malang City. The high number of TB cases encourages multi-stakeholder synergies, including the role of the TB caring community.
In Malang City there is a community of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (TB-RO) survivors who call themselves PANTER TB-RO (Never Give Up Drug Resistant Tuberculosis).
TB-RO itself is a condition where the bacteria _Mycobacterium Tuberculosis_ has experienced immunity to Anti-TB Drugs (OAT).
The TB-RO survivors formed an association on February 19 2014. This community was legalized as a legal entity in the form of an association on December 4 2016.
“Actually TB in general, but we focus (assistance) on TB-RO patients. Because friends with TB-RO are usually more complex problems, from drug side effects to social aspects. We want to be a successful example of the success of TB-RO treatment ,” said Saiful Rizal, Chairman of PANTER TB-RO.
Through its vision, PANTER TB-RO wants to take part in making Indonesia free from tuberculosis. Saiful said that PANTER TB-RO carried out various activities to improve access to information and TB treatment.
It is also important to suppress the negative stigma and discrimination against TB patients, which sometimes makes these patients discouraged from seeking treatment.
“We want to share experiences of undergoing treatment, provide psychosocial support and motivation so that the enthusiasm of patients, especially TB-RO, is to obey the treatment process until they are cured,” said Saiful.
Having experienced it, that’s what drives PANTER TB-RO to help motivate patients to persevere in undergoing treatment and taking medication.
The man who was declared cured of TB-RO in 2012 added that currently PANTER provides assistance not only for TB patients from Malang City.
But also from several other areas being treated at Saiful Anwar Malang Hospital. “In total there are approximately 170 patients, from the city of Malang itself there are around 22 patients,” he said.
The community, which is located in Bandungrejosari Village, Sukun District, Malang City, has 16 members. Various activities carried out by PANTER TB-RO include _home visits_, _hospital visits_, and health centers _visit_.
PANTER TB-RO also often holds patient gatherings by inviting patients, their families as well as health workers. PANTER TB-RO also distributes assistance from donors to patients and families in need.
Saiful and his colleagues also socialized TB and TB-RO to the community. The hope is that the community will understand how to take action to prevent the spread of TB-RO or help direct how to deal with TB-RO sufferers.
In addition, PANTER TB-RO also builds networks with parties or institutions that care about TB-RO, both government and private institutions to help reduce the number of TB cases towards Indonesia Eliminating TB.
“Patients need psychosocial support which is not enough to be obtained only from health workers. It needs assistance from peer educators who have understanding and experience of how to be able to carry out treatment until it is finished,” said the 37-year-old man. (ari/yon/toeb)
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