Vaccine hesitancy compounds the problem<\/a>, pulling down immunisation rates even in areas where vaccines are readily available.<\/p>\nMeasles vaccination rates in Indonesia, like in much of the rest of the world, plummeted during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
A concentrated post-pandemic immunisation drive by the Health Ministry succeeded in pushing the rate to 92 per cent in 2022, but it has hovered at around 82 per cent since 2023 \u2013 below the pre-pandemic level of 88 per cent in 2019.<\/p>\n
At a hospital in Bekasi, in West Java, paediatrician Mega Septiana said she has treated at least 20 measles patients since the start of 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn normal conditions, you should only see maybe one or two measles cases a month. But now I\u2019m seeing at least one or two cases a week,\u201d she told The Straits Times. \u201cThe rise has been quite drastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Mega estimated that around 80 per cent of her measles patients were unvaccinated. Some of them were infants who were not yet able to be vaccinated. Others missed vaccinations due to scheduling issues or forgetfulness.<\/p>\n
But around half of the unvaccinated children, she said, had parents who harboured doubts about vaccines.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them have very strong negative opinions about vaccines,\u201d she added. \u201cThey think that vaccines are just being promoted for profit. Some of them also believe that vaccines can cause disability or death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Dicky Budiman, an Indonesian epidemiologist at Griffith University in Australia, said the WHO had already identified vaccine hesitancy as a global health security threat in 2019, even before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt worsened during the pandemic because of a lot of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories,\u201d he told ST.<\/p>\n
Before the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy in Indonesia was largely attributed to religious considerations.<\/p>\n
In 2018, for example, local Islamic leaders in Riau and South Sulawesi urged the government to stop its immunisation programme over concerns that the measles-rubella vaccine was not halal as it contained trace amounts of pig-derived material.<\/p>\n
This prompted the Indonesian Ulama Council, the country\u2019s top Islamic body, to issue a fatwa, or religious ruling, declaring the measles-rubella vaccine to be mubah (permitted for use), given the public health necessity and lack of halal alternatives.<\/p>\n
But since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing prevalence of anti-vaccine views based on pseudoscience and global conspiracy theories, much of it spread by so-called \u201cholistic health\u201d influencers.<\/p>\n
One such influencer, Ms Rizki Novianti, better known by her nickname Bude Wellness (\u201cWellness Auntie\u201d), drew controversy in February when she got into a debate with several medical professionals on social media.<\/p>\n
Ms Rizki, who has more than 220,000 followers on Instagram, where she promotes a \u201clow-toxin lifestyle\u201d, was asked by a follower whether it was all right if they had been vaccinated.<\/p>\n
She replied via an Instagram story that \u201cmaking a mistake once is understandable, but repeating it again makes it a habit\u201d, implying that getting vaccinated was a mistake.<\/p>\n
The post was criticised by many, including Dr Yassin Bintang, an obstetrician and gynaecologist with a large online following.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t get vaccinated, that\u2019s not wellness, but illness,\u201d he posted on social media platform Threads.<\/p>\n
But Ms Rizki doubled down on her stance, saying that health workers like Dr Yassin were \u201cplaying God\u201d and \u201cbeing judgmental\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dr Dicky said views like Ms Rizki\u2019s were not new, and that the Indonesian government should take more steps to counter such misinformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should involve more local figures, including religious and cultural leaders,\u201d he said, adding that information about vaccines should be more localised.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Australia, for example, immunisation pamphlets are translated into different languages for immigrant communities. I\u2019ve never seen such information translated to regional languages in Indonesia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dr Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, agreed, telling ST: \u201cAnti-vaccine sentiment will have different causes in every province, every regency. So vaccine promotion has to be tailored accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Yurdhina Meilissa, chief primary healthcare officer at the Center for Indonesia\u2019s Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI), said the government should also improve surveillance and data collection, especially ahead of the Eid holiday.<\/p>\n
A project to improve immunisation rates in Bekasi and Depok, in West Java, is among the initiatives run by CISDI, a non-governmental organisation that focuses on public health policy.<\/p>\n
Dr Yurdhina has found that low vaccination rates are often caused as much by supply problems as by low demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes there\u2019s a delay in inputting data, and as a result, the Health Ministry will be late in resupplying a particular health centre,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce that happens, parents will be disappointed, and it\u2019s hard to get them to come back at a rescheduled date.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to handle issues like this, especially at a time when people are going to interact a lot and there\u2019s a risk that diseases will spread faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
For its part, the Health Ministry has said that vaccine stocks in every province will suffice for at least the next two months, and that it will accelerate its Outbreak Response Immunisation programme in regions with the highest measles rates ahead of the holiday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage parents to immediately check their child\u2019s immunisation status and complete it if it\u2019s incomplete,\u201d the ministry\u2019s acting director-general for disease control, Dr Andi Saguni, said in a statement on March 6. \u201cImmunisation is the most effective protection against measles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 13, 2026 SINGAPORE \u2013 A steep rise in measles cases in Indonesia has highlighted the country\u2019s ongoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[18,135,19,7088,17,2990,119340],"class_list":["post-382403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-indonesia","tag-ireland","tag-society","tag-the-straits-times"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116219586165030122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}