Ministry of Health assures measles vaccine is safe and guaranteed to have BPOM distribution authorization

Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccine side effects are a normal sign that a child’s body is developing immunity.

Jakarta — The Ministry of Health (Kementerian Kesehatan, Kemenkes) has guaranteed the safety of using the MR vaccine in the measles immunisation programme, noting that it already holds a BPOM distribution authorization and has undergone thorough evaluation by the World Health Organization (WHO), with side effects that are generally mild and temporary.

Director-General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices (Farmalkes) at the Ministry of Health, Lucia Rizka Andalusia, urged the public not to worry about the vaccine selected for use in the national immunisation programme, particularly for measles.

“Do not be concerned about the choice of vaccine used in the national immunisation programme,” she said, “as it has been carefully studied by the Ministry of Health and conducted together with the National Immunisation Committee.” The remarks were made at an online press conference on the Update of Measles Cases in Indonesia, held in Jakarta on Friday.

She also reminded the public not to worry about reactions after immunisation, as they remain normal and temporary, with common complaints of mild pain at the injection site, mild fever and rashes.

Regarding the vaccine’s effectiveness, she explained that the MR vaccine has also been proven to be effective in markedly increasing children’s antibody titres, making immunisation an effective means of building protection against measles and rubella in children.

For measles, she noted that the vaccine raised protective antibody titres in children from 10.41% to 80.21%.

For rubella, the vaccine raised protective antibody titres from 15.10% to 98.96%.

“These data show that the MR vaccine we have chosen for use in this immunisation programme is effective in building protection against measles and rubella in children,” she asserted.