Govt plans immunization against Hepatitis B
Govt plans immunization against Hepatitis B
JAKARTA (JP): Prevention is better than cure, and in the case of Hepatitis B, for which there is no cure, prevention is the only way.
After last month's overwhelming success in the national mass immunization against polio for children under five years of age, the government is considering a similar campaign to fight Hepatitis-B.
President Soeharto, when dedicating a plant to produce Hepatitis-B vaccine in the West Java town of Bandung on Saturday, said that the campaign will target newborn babies.
"One in 10 babies are born of mothers who have Hepatitis-B. They have the potential of contracting the disease," Soeharto said, adding that relative to other countries, Indonesia has a medium-to-high prevalence of Hepatitis-B.
The new US$10 million vaccine plant is owned jointly by Perum Bio Farma, the state pharmaceutical company, and PT Triharsa Husada Utama, which is owned by Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana. It has an initial capacity to produce 10 million vaccines a year, and will be expanded to 15 million in the future.
The dedication ceremony was also timed with the commemoration of the National Health Day, which actually fell on Sunday.
Soeharto said the Hepatitis-B immunization campaign is being launched in compliance with a United Nations call but, given the limited vaccine available at present, the campaign will, initially, be limited to several provinces where the disease is most prevalent.
"Later on, we will make it a national program," he said, without setting a specific date.
According to the Ministry of Health, the campaign will be launched in 10 provinces: Bali, Central Java, East Java, Jakarta, Lampung, West Java, West Sumatra, West Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara and Yogyakarta.
Hepatitis B can lead to cirrhosis and cancer of the liver.
The President used the opportunity on Saturday to express his gratitude to some one million people, including officials and the public, who were involved in the highly successful anti-polio campaign launched in September and October.
A total of 23 million children, under five years old, were administered with the polio vaccine during the campaign, which must be repeated again in 1996 and in 1997 to eliminate the virus from Indonesia once and for all.
All the vaccines for the polio immunization were produced by Bio Farma, a point underlined by President Soeharto in his speech as something that "should make us proud".
Yesterday Soeharto also presented awards of appreciation to Dr. Satrio, Dr. Kodyat and Dr. Muchtar, who, during their lifetimes, made significant contributions to the promotion of health in Indonesia. The awards were presented to their heirs.
According to Antara, tokens of appreciations were also given to Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, Halimah Bambang Trihatmodjo, Mrs. Hartarto and all 27 provincial governors for their endeavors in the health sector. (emb)