Ministry Of Health Prioritizes Hepatitis B Immunization For Health Workers

The vaccinator injects hepatitis B vaccine to health workers on the agenda of launching free hepatitis B immunization at the Tangerang Regency Hospital, Banten, Wednesday (8/11/2023). (ANTARA/HO-Kemenkes)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) makes health workers a priority in the free hepatitis B immunization program for the community.

"Today we are launching a national immunization of hepatitis B for health workers to keep them from getting sick," said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, November 8.

According to Budi, health workers are the group most at risk of being exposed to the hepatitis B virus with a prevalence of 4.7 percent cases in Indonesia and a proportion of health workers who have anti-HBs+ antibodies of 36.7 percent.

For this reason, said Budi, the initial screening results for hepatitis B immunization will be prioritized for 541,243 health workers in the first level health facility (FKTP) and advanced referral health facilities (FKRTL) which will run until February 2024.

The immunization declaration was carried out at the Tangerang Regency Hospital, Banten, and was followed online by representatives of relevant officials from Lampung, Banten, Central Java, South Kalimantan, Gorontalo, Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, and South Papua Provinces.

"Why give it to health workers first, because actually this is already working for the baby, but it's only started in 1997," he said.

Budi added that the program is the government's commitment to accelerate the elimination of hepatitis B in 2030 in Indonesia.

Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said that the immunization of hepatitis B began with a health screening in the form of a rapid HBsAg test and antiHBs rapid test.

"The new immunization is given to the target with pre-immunization screening results showing non-reactive or negative HBSAg and non-reactive anti-HB," he said.

The type of vaccine used is the hepatitis B vaccine recombinant single dose prefill injection device produced from PT Biofarma which is an inactivation vaccine and does not infect.

"Therefore, the administration of this type of vaccine along with other vaccines that are killed does not interfere with the immune response to the vaccines given," he said.

Hepatitis B immunization is given a total of three doses with a minimum interval between the first and second doses 1 month apart, while the minimum interval for the second and third doses is 5 months.

Hepatitis B immunizations are given regardless of the previous hepatitis B immunization status.