Minister Of Health: Merah Putih Vaccine Will Be Used As Booster And Children

PIXABAY ILLUSTRATION

SURABAYA - Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said the Merah Putih vaccine would be used as a booster for children aged 3 to 6 years.

"Because currently, the government has accelerated the vaccination program since a few months ago", he said during a virtual presence at the Kick-Off for the Merah Putih Vaccine Clinical Trial at Dr. Soetomo Hospital Surabaya, quoted by Antara on Wednesday, February 9.

According to him, the vaccine can be used as a booster and for children based on the results of discussions held with President Joko Widodo.

"For the time being, we are looking at the potential of the Merah Putih vaccine for booster vaccines and especially for children over 3-6 years old. In the world, there are not many vaccines (for children 3-6 years old) as far as I know, only Sinovac and Pfizer. Pfizer is also in clinical trials", he said.

The Merah Putih Vaccine is planned to be used for international donated vaccines in several countries on the African continent.

"Because the penetration of vaccine distribution in Africa is rather slow. Many vaccine donations are in the form of Moderna and Pfizer which require logistics with a fairly high temperature of minus 25 to minus 28 degrees Celsius", he said.

Budi emphasized that President Jokowi had agreed to use the Merah Putih vaccine as Indonesia's donation to countries abroad.

"So it's not only used locally (in Indonesia) but also internationally", he said.

Nevertheless, continued the Minister of Health, what is needed now is the registration process at the World Health Organization (WHO) for clinical trials and boosters.

Furthermore, the registration is also required to be used as a donation to Africa.

"It must be ensured that this class of vaccine is at the international level (so it's not just clinical trials), but also to publish as much international research as possible about vaccines so that the world's researchers can see it", he said.