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Childhood immunizations slump during COVID-19 pandemic
Last year, vaccinations were particularly low for measles-rubella (MR) and tetanus-diphtheria (TD), with their average national coverage rates standing at 40 and 45 percent, respectively.
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Health workers administer drops of the polio vaccine to children under 5 at an integrated health service post (Posyandu) Jati 2 in Gunung Kelurahan, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, on March 8, 2016. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has led to backsliding in Indonesia's childhood immunization efforts, with the government prioritizing its pandemic response and fears over virus transmissions deterring parents from bringing their children to healthcare facilities.
Naditya Fitriani, a 27-year-old office worker in Bogor, West Java, said her 2-year-old son had missed two of his scheduled immunizations during the pandemic.
"My son missed his PCV [pneumococcal conjugate] vaccine [for bacterial meningitis] in January this year because he contracted COVID-19,” she said.
“And six month later, in June, he missed the second dose of his varicella vaccine [for chickenpox] because I was too afraid to bring him to the hospital to get the shot. At the time, Indonesia was experiencing a huge spike in COVID-19 cases and many hospitals were overwhelmed with patients.”
In Klaten, Central Java, 28-year-old Anitasari said her 6-month-old son had fallen two months behind his polio immunization schedule because the clinic she frequently visited had run out of vaccine stocks.
"Even if the vaccines were still available, it was very hard to book vaccination appointments in the clinic as it was busy dealing with COVID-19 patients," she said.
A 2017 Health Ministerial Regulation on immunization stipulates that children below 1 year must be given basic vaccines, including against hepatitis B, polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, pneumonia and meningococcal disease (bacterial meningitis).
