T

he government has blamed parents’ reluctance to get their children vaccinated for the recent diphtheria outbreak in East Java, with many religious communities in the province still questioning whether the anti diphtheritic vaccine is halal, or allowed according to Islam.

Edi Purwinarto, assistant for people’s welfare affairs at the East Java provincial administration, said on Friday that local communities living in some small areas in the province were still somewhat reluctant to give their newborns a complete basic vaccination.

“Some parents resist getting their children vaccinated due to a number of reasons. Some of them are just worried that vaccination will hurt their children or cause a fever but in some areas people worry that the vaccines are not halal,” Edi told The Jakarta Post.

East Java Governor Soekarwo declared an extraordinary situation (KLB) on Sunday for diphtheria in all parts of the province. The provincial administration said that as of Oct. 14, diphtheria incidents had reached 352 cases with 11 deaths, not 328 deaths as reported earlier by several media outlets.

Diphtheria is a deadly upper respiratory-tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, it can be prevented by administering DPT vaccination to newborns.

Mass diphtheria vaccination is being carried out in several outbreak regions, especially in 11 regencies and municipalities; Bangkalan, Banyuwangi, Blitar, Gresik, Mojokerto, Pamekasan, Pasuruan, Sampang, Sidoarjo, Sumenep and Surabaya. Together with religious leaders, Edi said, the local government was working to change existing perceptions and attitudes toward vaccines. “It’s not easy to overcome parental resistance to immunization since it is closely related to religious perceptions. Therefore, we work with religious organizations to teach parents about the importance of getting their children vaccinated,” said Edi mentioning Muslimat NU and Aisyiyah of Muhammadiyah as the government’s counterparts in the dialog. The local administration has allocated additional funds of Rp 8 billion (US$896,000) to combat the disease.

To cope with the disease, Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said the government would not only intensify the routine immunization program but also allocate funds of about Rp 13 billion (US$1.47 million) to tackle the outbreak. The funds would be used both to buy anti diphtheritic serum (ADS) and medicines, as well as conducting surveillance.

“With failures in delivering routine vaccination programs, we may still have areas in which many children have incomplete vaccinations or have never even been immunized. Such conditions will place a heavier burden on public health,” she told journalists.

Andi Muhadir, director of surveillance, immunization and quarantine at the ministry, said that the government had delivered vaccines and contact management to combat the diphtheria outbreak. “We are providing erythromicyn to the diphtheria victims and carrying out lab tests to identify carriers of the disease to prevent them becoming sources of infection,” he told the Post.

An expanded outbreak response would also be held in East Java to combat the disease since it had spread to 34 regencies and municipalities, he added.