Fighting the Negative Stigma Associated with Tuberculosis
Many still have poor awareness of the causes, transmission and prevention of tuberculosis (TB). As a result, negative stigma emerges and hinders TB mitigation efforts in Indonesia.
A man signs a form for submitting a sample of sputum on 24 March 2018 at Persahabatan Central General Hospital in East Jakarta. The hospital ran a free month-long testing service for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) from 24 March to 24 April 2018 using Gene-Xpert.
Despite being a major infectious disease in Indonesia, tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most poorly-understood diseases in the country. The lack of public knowledge on TB is perfectly captured in the result of a Kompas poll on March 11-13.
People generally understand TB as an infectious disease that attacks the respiratory tract. This is reflected in respondents’ first response upon hearing the word TB. Most of the public identifies TB as an infectious disease (26.8 percent), lung disease (25 percent) and cough or flu-related disease (24.4 percent).