Denpasar (ANTARA) – Head of the Bali Province Health Service (Dinkes) I Nyoman Gede Anom said that the potential for finding measles cases in Bali is relatively small. “From those affected in other areas, it’s possible that it’s because immunization against measles is not high, if it’s good in Bali, there’s less chance of people getting measles,” said I Nyoman Gede Anom, in Denpasar, Sunday.
He said that measles had long disappeared from Bali, and the status of an extraordinary event (KLB) was finally assigned to the province and district/city with the finding of the case. “Because it hasn’t been there for a long time, now just one appears which will be called an outbreak, at this time we are monitoring it every day and in regencies/cities throughout Bali there has not been found measles,” he also said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Anom said that immunization against measles for children continued to run routinely at puskesmas and posyandu at approximately 5,000 points in districts/cities. All parents who have babies are often advised to continue giving measles immunization according to the schedule in each child’s notebook, so that nothing is left behind during a pandemic.
Measles immunization, said Anom, is one of 14 mandatory immunizations for children and is given free of charge by the government. “We have asked the Ministry of Health for the vaccine, so until now no one has missed immunization and is safe, because our immunization is indeed high, hopefully there will be no cases,” he said.
To date, the Ministry of Health has assigned 12 provinces the status of measles outbreaks, including regencies/cities in West Sumatra, Riau, Jambi and North Sumatra provinces.
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Meanwhile in Bali, Anom said that there had been no specific directives from the Ministry of Health, but the Bali Provincial Government was still directed to monitor immunizations. “In addition, the hospital must be ready if there is a case and until now there has been no report,” he said.
Anom said that parents should remain vigilant if there are characteristics of measles such as spots on the child’s body, because measles can cause fever and even death.
