REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) urges the public to vaccinate diphtheria completely to minimize the symptoms caused diphtheria disease cases of which are currently being found in a number of regions in Indonesia. “One of the risk factors for diphtheria is people who are not fully immunized,” said the Ministry of Health’s Health Transformation Communication Technical Staff, Dr. Ngabila Salama, in a talk related to diphtheria which was attended online in Jakarta, Monday (9/10/2023).
He said that diphtheria disease should be watched out for because someone who is healthy and has no symptoms can also be a carrier of diphtheria bacteria and infect other people. He said that vaccination must be carried out by the majority of people in a certain group, in order to create group immunity.
“Usually diphtheria occurs more easily in areas where vaccine coverage is not high and uneven. Why vaccines? Because vaccines protect ourselves and the people around us,” said Ngabila who is also Head of the Surveillance, Epidemiology and Immunization Section of the DKI Health Service (Dinkes) Jakarta that is.
Group immunity, he said, is to protect groups who have low immunity, such as the elderly, pregnant women, children and people with comorbidities. Therefore, he appealed to the public to do so diphtheria vaccination as a first preventive measure.
At least, he said, the diphtheria vaccine is given several times, respectively to babies aged 2, 3 and 4 months, toddlers (18 months), when they enter grades 2 and 5 of elementary school (SD), as well as booster or additional vaccines for women. with productive age (15-39 years).
Diphtheria vaccination is one of 15 types of free immunization provided by the government to all Indonesian children to prevent disease in the future.
“Immunization is an easy and free way to prevent 30 infectious diseases and epidemics, with effectiveness above 95 percent,” he said.
The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) says an effective way to mitigate diphtheria bacterial infections is by carrying out complete diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) immunization.
“We can do DPT immunization from the start and it must be a complete first, second and third immunization when we are a baby,” said Head of the BRIN Preclinical and Clinical Medical Research Center, Harimat Hendarwan.
He said, by getting this immunization, the potential for infection with this disease that attacks the throat can be prevented, especially if people have also received the DPT booster vaccine every 10 years.
source: Between
2023-10-09 07:34:34
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