Ministry Of Health Expands Coverage Of DNA HPV Vaccine Handling Cervical Cancer

Director of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases at the Ministry of Health Eva Susanti was met in Jakarta, Wednesday (8/11/2023). (ANTARA/Lintang Budiyanti Prameswari).

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) is gradually expanding the coverage of DNA HPV vaccines in 2024 to treat cervical neck cancer (cervices), because currently the vaccine is still limited in DKI Jakarta.

"The current HPV DNA vaccine screening is still specifically for DKI Jakarta because the budget is still limited, next year we will expand it gradually in 16 provinces in Indonesia to deal with cervical cancer," said Director of Non-Infectious Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health Eva Susanti as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, November 8.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus that can cause various diseases, one of which is cervical cancer, therefore a DNAGenotyping HPV test is carried out, which is a molecular-based test procedure aimed at knowing the signs of HPV infection, prioritizing the type group that can cause cancer in the neck of the uteri uterus.

Based on data submitted by Eva, there are 103 million women over 15 years old who are at risk of developing cervical cancer, second in Indonesia after breast cancer, of which 36 thousand women are diagnosed every year.

"70 percent of women who were diagnosed are in advanced stages, and there are 21 thousand who died from this cervical cancer. For this reason, we are trying to transform, strengthen primary services, screening, and vaccinations for 5th and 6th grade children specifically for DNA HPV, and this has been done nationally," said Eva.

He explained that currently the free HPV DNA vaccine is still prioritized for children of this age, and then a National Action Plan for the Elimination of cervical cancer will be prepared to calculate how much it needs for the Indonesian people.

Eva said that people's lifestyle is one of the risk factors that causes cancer.

"Many carcinogenic substances trigger cancer or there is a behavior of smoking risk factors, it is close or strong in effect on various types of cancer. Then, diets that are not healthy, eat less fruit and vegetables, it is also closely related to cancer," he explained.

Therefore, the Ministry of Health has implemented a health transformation to prevent cancer, first namely strengthening health resilience, by increasing domestic medical device products and strengthening health workers when a disaster occurs.

Then, increase health resources, by meeting the needs of specialist doctors, early detection training of breast cancer in first-level health facilities in general practitioners, and DNA HPV examinations at health centers that can be carried out by doctors and health workers.

"The next title, namely the national health information system, there is a reporting system based on the name and address, by name by address which is updated, so when friends do screening anywhere, the data is automatically updated in the national health system," he said.

He also emphasized the importance of cross-sectoral cooperation to socialize cancer screening early on to the public.

"There needs to be cross-sectoral cooperation on how this message can reach the community, early detection of cervical cancer is important, especially in women aged 30-50 years," he said.

Meanwhile, BPJS Kesehatan President Director Ali Ghufron Mukti said that in the context of controlling cancer cases, promotional services, prevention, screening and consultation in the National Health Insurance (JKN) program, it continues to be strengthened.

"Not only curative by providing guarantees for treatment, BPJS Kesehatan also provides promotive and preventive services to prevent cancer, for women there is an IVA program or papsmear to detect cervical cancer that can be obtained at FKTP according to the provisions," said Ali.