"Phase 2 BIAN in Java and Bali has reached 87.7 percent (coverage)," Harbuwono stated during a hearing meeting of Commission IX of the House of Representatives (DPR) followed via YouTube here on Tuesday.
He remarked that the coverage for phase 1 BIAN for islands outside Java and Bali had reached 59.1 percent, and the coverage is targeted to surpass 60 percent this month.
The 2022 BIAN is divided into two phases of implementation. Phase 1 commenced in May 2022, while phase 2 began in August 2022, targeting children aged 12-59 months that have not completed the immunizations of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), oral polio vaccine (OPV), and the DPT-HB-Hib vaccine, which, according to the Health Ministry's website, is administered to prevent six diseases: diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, pneumonia, and meningitis.
The Ministry of Health divided the 2022 BIAN into four groups: additional measles and rubella immunization, catch-up immunizations (OPV, IPV, and DPT HB-Hib), administering one dose of measles and rubella vaccine regardless of previous immunization status, and administering one or more immunization types to complete the status of basic and advanced immunization.
According to Harbuwono, the program was implemented based on the recommendation of experts from the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI), the National Commission on Measles and Rubella Eradication, and the Diphtheria Expert Committee to conduct additional measles-rubella immunization to eradicate the diseases by 2023.
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The Ministry of Health recorded that over 1.7 million babies in Indonesia had not received basic immunizations during the 2019-2021 period. Of the figure, 600 thousand, or 37.5 percent, were from Java and Bali islands.
He admitted that information on 2022 BIAN, which had yet to reach all the people, posed a challenge for the program.
He noted that a hoax circulating in the community said that the vaccines used in the 2022 BIAN are COVID-19 vaccines.
Moreover, issues regarding the halal status of vaccines that hindered the program in several areas also still pose a problem for this year's BIAN.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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