TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) reported an increase in cases of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin from 152 to 192 as of Tuesday, October 18, 2022, in 20 provinces.

Piprim Basarah Yanuarso, the chairman of IDAI, said it was not a sudden hike because the data was collected from January to October 2022. “Even though it looks like the number jumps high, it is cumulative from before. [Some cases] were just reported today. There are 192 cases as of this afternoon,” said Piprim via Zoom on Tuesday.

He also said it was still dominated by toddlers aged 1-5 years with clinical symptoms of difficulty urinating or even no urine production. Jakarta logged the highest case number with 50 cases, followed by West Java with 24 cases, East Java with 24 cases, West Sumatra with 21 cases, Aceh with 18 cases, and Bali with 17 cases.

IDAI and the Health Ministry are still researching the causes of this disease. Piprim added that reports from a number of regions have different profiles, so the single cause cannot be ascertained.

Several allegations appeared, such as ethylene glycol poisoning (intoxication) to Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) or multisystem inflammatory syndrome after COVID-19.

“For MIS-C, we have the medicine. But there are also patients who do not improve [after undergoing the treatment]. It is also suspected [that chronic kidney disease is caused by the consumption of] drugs containing ethylene glycol. We are examining this,” said Piprim.

GADIS OKTAVIANI

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