Free baby vaccines sold at markets
Free baby vaccines sold at markets
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After reports earlier this year that donated medicine intended
for flood victims was finding its way into the city's markets, a
similar scandal has erupted involving certain vaccines essential
for the health and well-being of babies.
"The vaccines should be given for free to babies. The public
has been denied of a free medical service," Marius Widjajarta,
the chairman of the Indonesian Health Consumers Empowerment
Foundation (YPKKI), said at a media briefing on Monday.
The vaccines can easily be found in several black markets all
over the city, such as Pramuka and Tanah Abang in Central
Jakarta, in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, or Kebayoran Baru and Blok
M in South Jakarta.
"These vaccines are sold at only one-third of the official
price," he said, adding that the buyers should be medical
workers.
Marius, who is a medical doctor, said the foundation's eight
investigators spent some Rp 250,000 (US$28) to buy all types of
the vaccines.
They included the BCG vaccines, hepatitis B, measles, tetanus
and oral polio vaccines.
Marius said the problem was not only limited to the vaccines
being sold to the public, but also its quality.
"Who can guarantee the quality of a vaccine that may not have
been stored properly by the vendors?"
The oral vaccine for polio, which lasts for two years if
stored at a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius, will expire in
just six months if it is stored between 2 degrees Celsius and 8
degrees Celsius.
All other vaccines can last for two years if they are properly
stored between 2 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius.
The vaccines should only be sold with a physician's
prescription, but a brief visit to Pramuka market proved that all
the vaccines could be easily bought without one. There were no
hassles as long as the sellers had it in stock.
"What else do you need? We have plenty of them," one woman
told The Jakarta Post when she was asked for the BCG, diphtheria,
pertussus, tetanus (DPT), Hepatitis B and polio vaccines.
Most of the vendors were tightlipped on the source of their
vaccines.
All the vaccines were manufactured by Bandung-based PT Bio
Farma, which is the country's only producer of vaccines.
Marius played down the possibility that Bio Farma was to blame
for the distribution leak.
"It would be impossible for a company with a monopoly to leak
the vaccines to the market as that would be equal to suicide.
"It is more likely that it occurred once the vaccines were
given to the city health agency and before they were distributed
to community health centers all over the city," he said.
Marius also called on the Food and Drug Control Agency to play
a more serious role in controlling the distribution of vaccines.
Earlier this year, the government denied allegations that some
of the medicine intended for flood victims was also ending up on
market shelves after officials claimed they had conducted an
investigation into reports made on the case.
Contacted separately, the spokesman for the City Health
Agency, Evy Zelfino, told the Post that there was little chance
of any discrepancies occurring in the distribution of vaccines
from within the agency.
"I haven't heard about this problem but we will look into it.
There is also the possibility that the vaccines were acquired
from other provinces, but then sold in Jakarta.
"The agency applies a tight one-door system, called the cold
chain, to monitor the distribution of vaccines."
She said they distributed the vaccines to any health office
which needed a certain vaccine. The offices would then distribute
them to public health clinics, she said.