Aceh Health Office: No Need To Worry About Immunization Of BIAN Program Even Though Children Just Received COVID-19 Vaccines

Illustration - Health workers measure head circumference of children under five during immunization activities at the Doy Aceh Village Health Center (Via ANTARA)

ACEH - The Aceh Health Service (Dinkes) asked people in their regions not to worry about the implementation of basic immunization in the National Child Immunization Month Program (BIAN) which is given when children also receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Head of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) Aceh Health Office Iman Murahman said the BIAN program targets children to receive measles-rubella immunization, as well as complete the missed doses of polio and DPT-HB-Hib during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Actually, this is not a problem, for example, if a child was just injected with the COVID-19 vaccine last week, then this week the measles-rubella injection will not be a problem," said Iman in Banda Aceh, Antara, Monday, May 23.

Aceh targets 1.4 million children to get basic immunization in the BIAN program. Currently, all districts/cities have started implementing the program which lasted for a month. However, the achievements are still very small.

“The BIAN program has already started. The achievement is around 0.1 percent, so it's still very low from that target," said Iman.

Indeed, according to Iman, there are still concerns from the community when their children get the COVID-19 vaccine and basic immunizations in the near future.

Therefore, he said, his party through the Puskesmas continues to carry out socialization well to the community in an effort to provide an understanding that basic immunization is very important to prevent children from disease.

"In terms of understanding, of course, we need time to convey it so that it is truly understood by the community and also parents. Because this is also a national activity, so that we don't get measles-rubella, we prevent it by immunizing," he said.

He hopes that the COVID-19 vaccination for children will be carried out well, and the immunization of the BIAN program, which targets children aged 9 months to 15 years, can also run well, simultaneously.

Moreover, he said, the average achievement of COVID-19 vaccination in all of Aceh was above 70 percent, so the local government had to focus on implementing basic immunization in the BIAN program launched by the Indonesian Ministry of Health.

"The time for the BIAN program is only a month, if there is no time limit for the COVID-19 vaccine," said Iman.

Previously, the Aceh Health Service had followed the launching of the BIAN by the Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, last Wednesday (18/5). Since its launch, this program will last a full month.

The head of the Aceh Health Office, Hanif, said that measles-rubella cases were still found in Aceh and other provinces in the country, so it was hoped that this program would run smoothly.

Moreover, he said, the coverage of basic immunization in Aceh is relatively low. The decline was also felt during the pandemic. The average immunization coverage of districts/cities in Aceh is below 50 percent.

"That's why we have to pursue this. The lowest areas are the east coast of Aceh such as Pidie, North Aceh, Bireuen and so on. Maybe Central Aceh and South Aceh are a little better," he said.