W

ith the number of cases of people infected with rubella rising in recent years, the Central Java province is stepping up efforts to combat the virus.

According to the province’s health agency, there were 482 cases of rubella in the province last year. As of August this year, the agency identified 243 cases, prompting the local administration to take the matter more seriously.

“That’s why we were really working hard in conducting the [local] government’s measles and rubella immunization program,” agency head Yulianto Prabowo said on Tuesday.

The province has launched the campaign in schools and community health centers over the past month. Many people have taken part in the immunization program, bringing their babies to get measles and rubella vaccinations.

In Tinjomoyo, Banyumanik, Semarang, Hastini took her two grandchildren, Evan and Evelin, to get immunized at the posyandu (local community health post) on Saturday. “Both of my grandchildren were not scared. They did not cry when they got the shots,” Hastini said.

According to Yulianto, the immunization program targeted 8.2 million children aged between nine and 15 years. As of the second week of September 2017, 84 percent or 6.5 million of the targeted children were vaccinated. The agency targets to vaccinate 95 percent of them.

The program has faced a number of challenges.

Some institutions, including a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) with 520 students in Magelang, refused to take part in the program. “The pesantren was waiting for an instruction from its central management board,” Yulianto said.

Islamic groups in Boyolali and Wonosobo have voiced their opposition to the program as they believe that the vaccines contain a substance they consider haram, or forbidden under Islamic law.

“These groups have long been opposed to immunization, and we are still trying to reason with them,” Yulianto said.

Ahmad Darodji, chairman of the local Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), said that even though there was a substance in the vaccine that was haram, Muslims could be vaccinated in emergency situations.

He added that, by 2020, Indonesia was expected to be free of measles and rubella.

Indonesia has been polio-free since 2010, although the disease is not completely eradicated globally as it can still be found in Afghanistan and Africa. “Only smallpox has been eradicated,” Ahmad said.

Separately, Central Java Family Welfare Movement (PKK) chairwoman Siti Atiqoh Supriyanti underlined the important role of community figures in raising awareness about the importance of measles and rubella immunization.

She said she had met with female preachers and the wives of influential pesantren owners to help promote the program.

Siti also suggested that the immunizations be made compulsory for couples wanting to marry as pregnant mothers with measles and rubella ran the risk of delivering babies with, among other health problems, deafness and lung problems.

“It’s necessary to ensure the children are healthy,” she said.