Ministry Of Health: Hepatitis B Dominated In Mother-to-Child Transmission

Illustration - Hepatitis B. (PHOTO BETWEEN/HO-Kemenkes).

JAKARTA - Director of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Imran Pambudi said hepatitis B in Indonesia is mostly transmitted from mother to child. "This condition allows for chronic hepatitis B," he said on the agenda of the 14th World Hepatitis Day in 2023 which was followed by a network in Jakarta, Antara, Friday, July 28. The transmission of hepatitis B from infected mothers to children is one of the causes of the high prevalence of hepatitis B in Indonesia. Based on data from the 2013 Riskesdas, the prevalence of hepatitis B (HBsAg) in general is 7.1 percent or the equivalent of around 18 million Indonesians. Babies infected with hepatitis B virus, he said, have a risk of more than 90 percent to 95 percent developing into chronic hepatitis B. While those infected after 5 years of age rarely experience chronic infection. Therefore, he said, vertical transmission or from parents to children contributes about 50 percent of the burden of hepatitis B disease globally. He appealed to pregnant women to immediately test Hepatitis to health facilities in order to prevent transmission to children. The government has also made various efforts to prevent incidents in pregnant women, including through hepatitis tests and vaccinations. "We are implementing a clean and healthy lifestyle to prevent hepatitis," he said. In addition, the government also provides Hepatitis B vaccines to pregnant women to increase immunity, prevent the transmission of Hepatitis B from mother to child, notifications for couples before having children, and conduct screening tests for infectious infections through blood transfusions, as well as the application of standard vigilance. "The Ministry of Health has made various efforts to overcome hepatitis B, including administering a hepatitis B vaccine dose 1 for newborns aged 0 or less than 24 hours, followed by the next dose of hepatitis B vaccination in accordance with the national immunization program," he said. The Ministry of Health also conducts hepatitis B examinations on all pregnant women. In 2022, hepatitis B examinations were carried out on pregnant women in 489 districts/cities with the number of pregnant women examined exceeding 3.2 million people.

The Ministry of Health also provides antiviral drugs tenofovir withfumerate disopoxil to pregnant women who have been diagnosed with hepatitis B since 2022, and are currently being carried out in 180 health facilities in 34 districts/cities in 17 provinces. “ This is gradual, we will add regions to provide antiviral tenofovir disopoxil fumartate. We hope that by 2029 all regencies/cities can provide antiviral drug tenofovir disoprovyl fumartate in pregnant women,” according to Imran Pambudi.