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Parents of fake vaccine victims unhappy with hospital's explanation
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An immunization worker gives an oral polio vaccine to a young child participating in a 2016 National Immunization Week event at state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma’s headquarters in Bandung, West Java. (thejakartapost.com/Arya Dipa)
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arents of children exposed to fake vaccines have expressed their doubts about the truth of an official statement from the management of Harapan Bunda Hospital on Friday afternoon that claimed all vaccines given before March this year were genuine.
The Health Ministry previously said the fake vaccines had been marketed in some regions since 2003.
In its statement on Friday, the hospital promised to make public the names of patients who received vaccines from March to June. But the parents of the babies told the hospital to reveal the list of patients who had been vaccinated at the hospital since 2003.
They suspected that the use of fake vaccines at the hospital had taken place for years.
Victims also urged the hospital to bear all of the costs for the children to have checkups at other hospitals. The parents are also doubtful of the hospitals claim that the fake vaccines have no negative health impacts.
"We reject the hospital’s offer to only reimburse the money that we spent for vaccinations at this hospital. We want the hospital to bear all medical-checkup expenses for our children at other hospitals," said Ausgust Siregar, one of the protesters said.
In the statement, which was compiled by protesters at the hospital on Friday, parents of the patients urged the hospital to bear all of the costs if the fake vaccines led to any health problems in the future.
They also demanded health insurance for their children, who had received vaccines from the hospital, and were now no longer infants.
Representatives of the parents planned to take the case to the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA), Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) and Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI). (bbn)
