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Only BPOM has capacity and duty to check vaccine contents: Doctor
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Seto Hanggoro (in white shirt), the committee head of the Harapan Bunda Hospital, speaks last Friday to parents whose children were allegedly exposed by fake vaccines in East Jakarta. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) chairman Aman Bhakti Pulungan has admitted that it is difficult for doctors to recognize imported fake vaccines before injecting them into patients.
“It is hard for us to differentiate fake imported vaccines from the original vaccines. It’s only the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and the vaccine factory that can identify fake vaccines,” Aman said on Tuesday at the Health Ministry.
He agreed with a statement made by the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) that doctors do not have capability to distinguish original from fake vaccines; nor they are required to check and monitor the substances in vaccines.
Aman explained that 99 percent of the national need for vaccines is supplied by state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma, while 1 percent is fulfilled by imported vaccines.
All of the fake vaccines appeared to be imported brands called Pediacel and Tripacel. The ingredients of those vaccines are actually similar to those produced by Bio Farma and the quality was almost the same, he said
Following widespread reports about the circulation of fake vaccines and resulting public outrage, the Health Ministry promised to strengthen monitoring in the market and would also evaluate the procedure of importing vaccines.
“We will eliminate illegal vaccine distributors one by one as they might produce the fake vaccines,” director general for pharmaceuticals and health equipment at the Health Ministry, Maura Linda Sitanggang, said. (bbn)
