Saudi Arabia donates US$500,000

JAKARTA: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through its ambassador to Indonesia Abdullah Abdul Rahman Alim, donated US$500,000 (Rp 4.5 billion) on Monday to help Indonesia fight measles.

The donation, received by Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi, would be used to buy about 79,000 bottles of measles vaccine worth Rp 1.09 billion and 608 disposable syringes worth Rp 1.13 billion.

Sujudi said the funds would be spent for school-based anti- measles drives in three high-risk provinces -- Central Sulawesi, Maluku and North Maluku.

"The (immunization) coverage in the country reached 94.2 percent last year, but is still low in several areas," the minister said.

He said the school-based, anti-measles campaign was the most cost-effective way of eradicating the disease.

Immunization injections should be given twice in someone's life, once when they are nine-months old and the other when they are in elementary school or before they reach the age of 14. --JP