Indonesia has highest rate of Hepatitis B

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has the world highest prevalence of Hepatitis B, a disease which can lead to cirrhosis and cancer of the liver, according to an official.

Director-General of Communicable Diseases Prevention Hadi M. Abednego said yesterday that some 20 percent of Indonesia's total population of 202.74 million are affected by Hepatitis B.

"It's the world's highest rate. It's really a cause for alarm," he was quoted by Antara as saying in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi.

According to Ministry of Health data, one in 10 babies are born of mothers who have Hepatitis B and are therefore liable to contract the disease.

President Soeharto dedicated last December in Bandung a US$10 million Hepatitis B vaccine plant 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.

The plant has an initial capacity to produce 10 million vaccines a year, and will be expanded to 15 million in the future.

Locally made vaccine is priced at Rp 3,000 (US$1.27) per dosage, while some imported vaccines cost Rp 25,000 per dosage, Antara reported.

In compliance with a United Nations call, Indonesia has recently launched a Hepatitis B immunization campaign. Given the limited vaccine available at present, however, the campaign has been limited to provinces where the disease is most prevalent.

Hadi named the provinces as: Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta, Bali, West Sumatra, West Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara, and Lampung.

Later this year, however, the campaign will target some five million children under five years of age in all of the 27 provinces of Indonesia.

"I'm optimistic we can reach the target on schedule," Hadi said.

The vaccination campaign is part of the national health development program, the targets of which include the eradication of tuberculosis, tetanus, measles, polio and Hepatitis B.

A total of 23 million children under five years old were administered with the polio vaccine during the anti-polio campaign last year, which must be repeated again this year and in 1997 to eradicate the virus from Indonesia once and for all. (swe)