Ministry of Health Strengthens Synergy to Combat Disinformation and Boost National Immunisation
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono stated that the primary challenge in successfully implementing the national immunisation programme currently lies in the realm of public communication, prompting collaboration to combat misinformation and disinformation.
“We are facing a massive flow of misinformation and disinformation, ranging from issues of vaccine safety and halal status to misleading narratives that weaken public trust. The health system transformation we are undertaking positions public communication as an important pillar that requires strong, structured, and simultaneous orchestration,” said Deputy Minister Dante.
The statement was delivered at the Thematic Forum of the Public Relations Coordination Agency (Bakohumas) of the Ministry of Health to commemorate World Immunisation Week 2026.
On the same occasion, the Head of the Bureau of Communication and Public Information of the Ministry of Health, Aji Muhawarman, noted that public reluctance to participate in the immunisation programme, which results in cases of children without immunisation (zero dose), is heavily influenced by information disruption.
Data from the Ministry of Health indicates that the complete immunisation coverage for infants and toddlers in Indonesia up to 2025 is still uneven, with many regions yet to meet national targets. School-age child immunisation coverage up to 2025 remains uneven, with coverage still below 88 percent. Zero-dose DPT-HB-Hib children are still found across all regions, and in 2025, there were 991,022 such cases, an increase from 2024.
To address this, the forum adopted the theme “Government Public Relations Synergy for a Stronger and More Trusted Immunisation Programme” to bolster public communication capacity and expand cross-sectoral networks.
Aji likened the strategic role of government public relations to a “suckerfish” in the digital ecosystem.
“We hope that all government public relations practitioners can unify perceptions and actions to become the frontline in countering hoaxes. Like a ‘suckerfish’, fellow PR professionals can clean up health hoaxes in society and amplify positive messages massively,” Aji explained.
Director of Institutional Communication Partnerships and Public Relations and Digital, Maroli J. Indarto, reminded that the infodemic phenomenon causes hoaxes to spread faster than medical facts.
“Although complete immunisation coverage for children aged 12–23 months in 2025 has reached 76.9 percent, the communication chain at the grassroots level still requires improvement,” he said.