Regular Vaccine Distribution Constraints Storage Space

Director General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices of the Indonesian Ministry of Health Arianti Anaya/ Antara

JAKARTA - The Director General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Arianti Anaya, said that the majority of provinces in Indonesia do not have sufficient storage facilities for regular vaccine distribution.

"The obstacle is that vaccine items that have been held cannot be distributed to the provinces because the capacity of the vaccine storage room in the province is full of COVID-19 vaccines, so we are still waiting to be able to store regular vaccines," said Arianti Anaya in a Hearing Meeting with Commission IX which was attended from DPR RI YouTube in Jakarta, Monday afternoon.

Arianti said the government had purchased regular vaccines in 2021 which were divided into three groups, namely routine vaccines (DT, BoPV, Hepatitis B, BCG, DPT and MR). The new type of vaccine is Hib and other vaccines such as IPV and PCV.

The DT vaccine is given for the prevention of tetanus, BoPV for the prevention of Polio, Hepatitis B for the prevention of Hepatitis, BCG for the prevention of Tuberculosis, DPT for the prevention of diphtheria, and MR for the prevention of Rubella. IPV for polio prevention and PCV for pneumonia prevention.

Regular vaccines, said Arianti, are needed to supply national immunization needs which were hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 to 2020.

The vaccine was purchased by order using the APBN and grant assistance through multilateral cooperation with The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

"The progress as of November 19, 2021, has reached 99.9 percent or Rp. 1.062 trillion of the available ceiling of Rp. 1.62 trillion," he said.

Arianti said that the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccination is expected to provide space for regular vaccines to be stored in provincial health office facilities.

Currently, the Ministry of Health is coordinating with vaccine manufacturers to speed up the production process so that it can be immediately distributed to all provinces.