In the Hepatitis B prevention program, pregnant women are one of the at-risk populations that are a priority for intervention to prevent transmission from mother to childJakarta (ANTARA) - The Health Ministry is intensifying efforts to control Hepatitis B in pregnant women by administering the antivirus drug Tenofovir in an effort to prevent transmission to the fetus in the womb.
"In the Hepatitis B prevention program, pregnant women are one of the at-risk populations that are a priority for intervention to prevent transmission from mother to child," Director-General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, stated during the World Hepatitis Day webinar on Thursday.
According to Rondonuwu, one of the interventions made since 2014 was the early detection of Hepatitis B in pregnant women. Every year, the number of pregnant women not detected with Hepatitis B has continued to increase.
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Until 2021, as many as 2,946,000 pregnant women underwent early detection, and it was known that 1.6 percent or 47,550 pregnant women were detected positive for Hepatitis B infection.
"This means that pregnant women can transmit Hepatitis B to their unborn children," Rondonuwu pointed out.
To prevent the transmission of Hepatitis B, the ministry had administered the antivirus drug Tenofovir to pregnant women at eight weeks of pregnancy.
This activity has been conducted in several hepatitis B endemic countries and has become one of the interventions to prevent the transmission of Hepatitis B to pregnant women in accordance with the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO).
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Rondonuwu stated that the administration of Tenofovir in Indonesia has begun at the Wahidin Hospital in Makassar, South Sulawesi, and the Karyadi Hospital in Semarang, Central Java.
The provision of the antivirus drug Tenofovir, aimed at preventing mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B, had been expanded to 10 cities in six provinces comprising Bandar Lampung in Lampung Province; Central Jakarta, South Jakarta, North Jakarta, East Jakarta, and West Jakarta in Jakarta Province; Surabaya in East Java Province; Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan Province; Makassar in South Sulawesi; and Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara Province.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Resinta S
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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