The Ministry of Health Reminds of Potential Outbreaks of the Impact of Low Basic Immunization for Children

Merdeka.com – Director of Prevention and Control of Directly Infectious Diseases of the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, reminded the potential for Extraordinary Events (KLB) for a number of diseases due to the low coverage of complete basic immunization in Indonesia.

“Several regions have reported incidents, whether they are sporadic or categorized as outbreaks,” he said at a press conference, Wednesday (1/12).

Nadia asked parents to immediately contact the puskesmas if their child had a number of symptoms. Such as a child experiencing acute wilting paralysis, fever, red spots or sore throat.

“Immediately contact the local health center to get immediate treatment,” he ordered.

The former Director of Prevention and Control of Vector and Zoonotic Diseases of the Ministry of Health encouraged local governments to immediately increase the coverage of complete basic immunization for children. This step is to protect children from diseases other than Covid-19 in the midst of a pandemic.

“Efforts to complete routine immunization coverage need to be done,” he said.

Previously, the Acting Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, reported that complete basic immunization coverage in Indonesia has decreased since 2020. Specifically for 2021, the coverage has only reached 58.4 percent as of October.

“Our target for October is 71.1 percent and it is hoped that by the end of the year our target according to the Strategic Plan (Renstra) should be 95 percent,” said Maxi, Tuesday (11/30).

Maxi explained that there is a gap in complete basic immunization coverage in a number of provinces. Several provinces recorded that immunization almost reached the national target, or even exceeded it.

The provinces are Banten reaching 78.8 percent in October 2021. Then South Sulawesi, Bengkulu, South Sumatra, Gorontalo, Bali, Lampung, Bangka Belitung, East Java, and Jambi are almost close to the national immunization target.

“We hope that the gap should be covered by pursuing immunization activities. There is only a month left, I think there is still time,” he said.

Maxi reminded that complete basic immunization is very important to prevent the population from being vulnerable to a number of diseases that can trigger an Extraordinary Event (KLB). These diseases include TB or tuberculosis, Polio, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Hepatitis, Measles, and Rubella.

“It is certain that if the last two years have been low and uneven, it has the potential to cause outbreaks of vulnerability to the diseases I mentioned earlier, which could have been prevented by immunization,” he said.

He added that currently, there are already a number of outbreaks of Diphtheria, Measles and Rubella in a number of areas. In West Kalimantan, for example, there was an outbreak of Diphtheria.

“The experience of 2020, 2021 is certainly a good experience for us to pursue other routine and essential immunization activities, overcoming other diseases,” he concluded. [ray]

– .