Beware of Measles Vaccination Hoaxes

Amidst observing the fast, Eko Nopianto felt chills throughout his body and discomfort in his throat. Initially, Eko thought his symptoms were just a flare-up of his acid reflux. He tried treating his illness with paracetamol alone.

“But when I broke my fast, alhamdulillah, I could eat comfortably, with no complaints in my stomach,” said the 23-year-old man to detikX last week.

Eko eventually realised that the symptoms he was experiencing were not from acid reflux. Because that night, instead of improving, the symptoms worsened. In addition to chills and difficulty swallowing, Eko felt an extremely severe headache.

The next day, Eko’s eyes began to feel dry and red. He started having trouble looking at his phone screen when lying in bed. For more than four days, Eko experienced these symptoms without relief until he decided to seek treatment at the community health centre.

After being examined by a doctor at the community health centre’s emergency unit, Eko finally learned that his symptoms were not acid reflux, but measles. The doctor said there was a possibility that Eko had not been vaccinated against measles.

“So I confirmed with my parents, and it turned out to be true that I had never been vaccinated against measles,” Eko revealed.

Eko recounted that when he was young, his parents were reluctant to give him the measles vaccine because they were worried it would cause fever. That decision later made Eko’s parents quite regretful because their child was now vulnerable to the virus.

A doctor attends to a toddler patient undergoing measles vaccination at Ibrahim Adjie Community Health Centre in Bandung, West Java, on Friday (27/3/2026).

After experiencing the illness himself, Eko realised that measles is indeed terrifying. The disease kept Eko bedridden in hospital for several days. His body felt weak, and his temperature fluctuated for nearly a month. Eko had to take good care of his health even after recovering from the illness.

Epidemiologist from Griffith University Australia, Dicky Budiman, stated that measles is a disease that can resolve on its own. However, if ignored, its impact can be very dangerous. In the short term, measles can even cause death. In the medium term, measles can lead to risks of other infections due to immune amnesia. Measles survivors can be susceptible to other bacterial infections, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.

“The body loses its defences. It’s like a city without walls or soldiers. So other diseases can easily enter. This is something that the public often doesn’t realise,” Dicky said via telephone to detikX.

Lately, measles has indeed been outbreak in Indonesia. Data from the Ministry of Health shows a drastic increase in measles cases in the first week of this year. The number once reached 2,932 cases nationally, though it has slowly declined to just 330 cases in week 14 of 2026.

The sufferers are not only from the children’s group, but also adults like Eko. In Garut, one of the districts with the highest spread of measles cases, there are at least nine adults exposed to measles out of a total of 110 cases.

Head of the Garut District Health Office, Leli Yuliani, revealed that the adults affected by measles are in the 18-45 age range. The majority of them had never received measles immunisation since childhood.

Nevertheless, Leli acknowledged that efforts to expand measles immunisation coverage are not easy. Last year, the measles immunisation achievement in Garut District only reached 88 percent. This year, it is around 83 percent of the target of 168,000 toddlers. In three sub-districts with the highest case spread, especially in the southern region of Garut District, namely Pameungpeuk, Cibalong, and Cikelet, the coverage is even below 50 percent. This figure, said Leli, is still below the immunisation coverage standard to achieve herd immunity recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is 95 percent.

Several challenges still hinder efforts to expand measles immunisation coverage. One of them, said Leli, is the relatively lower education factor in southern Garut compared to other areas. This impacts public understanding of the benefits of the measles vaccine.

In addition, there is still a trust factor that prohibits measles immunisation. As a result, many parents are afraid to give their children the vaccine, considering it a sin. Moreover, said Leli, there is much disinformation and hoaxes related to vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic that made some parents view vaccines as frightening.

“Then, many parents work in the city. Their children are taken to the city but not immunised. When they return to the area, they are also not immunised. There are also children cared for by grandparents or relatives, so when it comes to immunisation, there is often reluctance because after immunisation, children usually become fussy,” Leli added.

Similar issues are faced in Aceh Province, which is also one of the areas with the highest number of cases, around 5,100 cases up to March 2026. Head of Disease Prevention and Control at the Aceh Health Office, Iman Murahman, stated that the high number of measles cases in Aceh is due to low immunisation coverage.

Last year alone, measles-rubella immunisation coverage in Aceh only reached 39 percent. The lowest achievement was in Pidie District with only 8.4 percent of a total of 8,000 infants. Even the previous year, the achievement was only 4 percent.

Health workers at Pragaan Community Health Centre examine a measles patient in Pragaan, Sumenep, East Java, on Wednesday (27/8/2025).

Iman revealed that expanding measles vaccine coverage in Aceh, especially in Pidie District, still faces several challenges. One of them is distrust of the vaccine. Many residents of Pidie do not trust