The Bandung City Health Office noted that cases of measles in the area had doubled.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANDUNG — Measles cases in a number of areas have been declared as Extraordinary Events (KLB). The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) mentions 12 provinces that have assigned measles outbreak status.
The Head of the Bandung City Health Office, Anhar Hadian, revealed that there was an increase measles case when compared to the previous year. “In 2022 there will be 9 confirmed measles in the city of Bandung, for 2023, as of today, we have received reports of 17 suspects,” said Anhar, Friday (27/1/2023).
He said, of all the suspects, only two patients had been confirmed to have measles. The two, said Anhar, were brothers who were reported to have experienced symptoms of fever and rash since late 2022 and early 2023.
Even so, after conducting tracing, Anhar confirmed that the other 15 suspects had no relation to person, time or place (epidemiology).
“We have checked, we asked, and we are monitoring. Thank God the two suspected children have recovered and are already doing their usual activities and none of the children around them were found to have measles,” said Anhar.
These findings, he said, further support the conclusion that measles cases in Bandung City cannot yet be classified as Extraordinary Cases (KLB). “So until now you can say that the measles case in the city of Bandung is still within safe limits and cannot be declared an outbreak,” he said.
All suspects, he continued, were in the age range from three months to eight years, most of them were under five years old. He also stressed that the majority of the causes of transmission could not be clearly concluded, but if you refer to the two confirmed cases, the two brothers had incomplete immunization status.
“So that one of the conclusions of the cause could be due to the incomplete immunization,” he said.
He appealed, if there are symptoms such as fever and rash or red spots in children, they are immediately rushed to the nearest health facility or puskesmas for immediate follow-up. The prevention efforts that can be done is to complete immunization.
“The most effective (prevention) is immunization, immunization is three times, right, at nine months, 18 months and during the first grade of elementary school (6/7 years). So don’t be late or miss immunizations, “he concluded.
Throughout 2022, 12 provinces have issued measles outbreak statements (KLB). An area is called an outbreak if there are at least 2 cases of measles in that area which have been laboratory confirmed and these cases have an epidemiological relationship.
