Jakarta, IO – World Immunization Week (“WIW”) is an event held in April every year to improve the people’s awareness of routine immunization. It has a different theme each year, to focus on a specific issue that the WHO want people to become aware of. The global WIW 2022 theme is “Long Life for All”, while in Indonesia it is “Keeping the Family Healthy through the Pandemic with Complete Immunization”.
“The Covid-19 pandemic significantly affects routine immunization of children. The latest Ministry of Health data shows that 1,714,471 of targeted Indonesian children have not obtained complete basic immunization per 2019-2021. The coverage of complete basic immunization during the pandemic has also decreased: complete basic immunization coverage in 2019 was 93.7%, down to 84.2% in 2021,” said the Ministry’s Acting Director of Immunization Management, dr. Prima Yosephine, in the World Immunization Week media meet held in Jakarta, Monday (11/04/2022).
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Such a large number of children missing complete basic immunization means that we have a high risk of unusual medical occurrence of diseases preventable by immunization. “Such preventable diseases have been diagnosed in several locations because of reduced immunization coverage. We already received reports of unusual medical occurrences in West Kalimantan and Papua for diphtheria, in Aceh for measles, and in South Sulawesi for both plus rubella,” dr. Prima warned.