Ministry Of Health: There Have Been Outbreaks Of Measles In 31 provinces, Patients Of All Ages

Illustration - Measles. (ANTARA/HO-Sutterstock).

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) stated that there were Extraordinary Events (KLB) of measles in 31 provinces in Indonesia until December 2022.

"The number of incidents up to December 2022 was reported from 31 provinces. The patients were almost of all ages," said the Head of the Ministry of Health's Communication and Public Service Bureau Dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi who was confirmed in Jakarta, Thursday, January 19, as reported by Antara.

She said measles cases reported from the regions to the Ministry of Health totaled 3,341 cases in 223 regencies/cities.

Measles is caused by a virus that can be spread by coughing and sneezing from one patient to another.

The Ministry of Health appealed to the public to be aware of this disease by understanding the characteristics of the symptoms that arise in patients.

"Symptoms of measles are high fever, reddish spots on the skin (rash) accompanied by cough and/or runny nose and/or conjunctivitis (red eyes due to inflammation) which can lead to complications such as pneumonia, diarrhea, meningitis," she said.

She said the current cases had increased by 32 times because the coverage of measles immunization during the 2020-2022 period did not meet the target.

One of the factors, she said, was because the focus of health services during the COVID-19 pandemic focused on efforts to control SARS-Cov-2 that causes COVID-19.

Based on the Ministry of Health's report, the coverage of complete basic immunization in infants has decreased by 84 percent of the immunization target of 92 percent.

Siti said, the measles immunization was given simultaneously with the rubella vaccine in a Measles-Rubella vaccine package of three injections, namely at the age of 9 months, 18 months and for children equivalent to grade 1 SD/MI/equivalent.