According to the Jakarta Globe newspaper, measles cases in the country are on the rise.
Officials announced that 17 people, most of them children, have died in the measles outbreak in the Sumenep region of East Java province. Indonesian Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, stated that the increase in cases is due to the vaccination programs that were interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Measles is preventable through vaccination, so we will renew our vaccination strategy to make it more effective," he said.
A large-scale vaccination campaign has been launched in the Sumenep region to control the outbreak. The campaign, supported by the Ministry of Health and local universities, has distributed 9,825 doses of measles vaccine and vitamin A supplements provided by the provincial government. The campaign, which will continue until September 14, aims to vaccinate 95% of the children in the Sumenep region.
