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Government expands rotavirus immunization nationwide
The government is set to expand the rollout of the rotavirus vaccine to prevent diarrheal diseases in infants nationwide starting Tuesday, as it seeks to further curb infant fatalities.
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A health worker prepares to administer a polio vaccine to a baby during a national child immunization program event at a community health post (Posyandu) in Cibinong, Bogor, West Java, on April 5, 2023. The provincial government plans to immunize 3.9 million children aged 1-59 months against polio. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
The government is set to expand the rollout of the rotavirus vaccine to prevent diarrheal diseases in infants nationwide starting Tuesday, as it seeks to further curb infant fatalities.
Health Ministry spokesperson Muhammad Syahril said that since last year the government had rolled out rotavirus shots in 21 cities across 18 provinces out of a total of 38 provinces, vaccinating more than 196,000 babies.
"We decided to include the rotavirus vaccine [as part of the national basic childhood immunization] due to the high mortality rate from diarrhea in toddlers," he said in a statement on Monday.
Diarrhea is among the most common ailments among infants and one of the leading causes of fatalities in babies.
Research in 2017 from the Rotavirus Surveillance Network (IRSN) revealed that 45 percent of hospitalizations of infants were caused by acute watery diarrhea caused by rotavirus, a very contagious virus that causes inflammation of the stomach and intestines, known as gastroenteritis.
In Indonesia, diarrhea leads to 9.8 percent of infant fatalities under the age of one and 4.5 percent of child fatalities under five years old.
The rotavirus vaccine will be given to babies aged two-six months old in three doses, with an interval of four weeks between each dose, according to Syahril.
