Background

Unfinished tuberculosis (TB) treatment has slowly but surely become an unexpected event in the disease’s development into drug-resistant TB. Developing countries, mostly comprised of Asian and Eastern European countries, including Indonesia, have been overwhelmed in preventing drug-resistant TB outcomes and have also failed to avoid the development of this disease.

Objectives

This review discusses the current issue of an unfinished first-line TB treatment strategy in primary care in Indonesia, presenting some relevant strategies in developing countries.

Material and methods

A narrative review approach conducted on all existing evidence in selected scientific bibliographic sources. The researchers defined the keywords based on the research question as a search strategy.

Results

Scarce resources and limited access, alongside national policy on TB control and management, contribute in different ways to impede first-line TB treatment in Indonesia. Empowerment of TB patients and their families are considered the best ways to increase awareness on TB medication in a low- to middle-income setting. The role of the hospital and private practitioner networks in the treatment and management of TB patients is essential for developing active-case-finding-approach programs for TB suspects in primary care in an Indonesian setting. Contrarily, the potential misunderstandings in TB treatment have led to peculiar events affected by poor surveillance systems for TB investigation contacts to prevent TB incidences in large populations.

Conclusions

This study addressed the barrier of all stakeholders, particularly primary care, to achieve the Indonesian government’s goals of TB elimination by 2030 and zero TB findings by 2050.