Editorial: Great Public Health Initiative, but What's Next?
The government is embarking on a massive program to eliminate lymphatic filariasis in eastern parts of Indonesia, which will involve more than 100 million people over the next five years.
This is a great initiative that -- if local authorities are on board and make sure this giant operation is seen to completion -- could yield some tangible results for people in some of the nation's least developed regions.
The program is an important move forward, but the administration of President Joko Widodo shouldn't stop here.
The country still faces high maternal and newborn mortality rates -- numbers have been steadily declining, but not fast enough. And apart from infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/Aids, we should also not lose sight of noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer or diabetes, which are set to take an increasingly high toll on Indonesians if we don't make the right lifestyle choices.
Besides better access to professional health care centers in underdeveloped regions, a key aspect of any government public health initiative should therefore be education.
Early on in his presidency, Joko rightfully made tackling substance abuse a policy priority -- although one could argue about how best to go about this -- but would a sustained campaign against tobacco use not make even more sense? It certainly would benefit a significant part of the population: tens of millions of (mostly) men who smoke cigarettes on a daily basis -- and all those affected by secondhand smoke -- as well as future generations of Indonesians who should be prevented from picking up the deadly habit.
World Health Organization data shows that as of late last year, over half of Indonesian men and more than a third of Indonesian boys aged 13-15 were smokers. Yet Indonesia is still among the ten countries that have not signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The government's universal health care program is proof that the president takes citizens' health seriously. That consideration should become the basis of a series of public health initiatives as bold as the new push to eradicate filariasis, including signing and ratifying the FCTC.
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