Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Health is studying the provision of the dengue vaccine, known as the Tetravalent Dengue Vaccine (TDV), as a national vaccination program.The ministry’s Director of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control, Imran Pambudi, statedhere on Sunday that the study will take around two years. “While people are partaking in vaccination (independently), we are conducting operational research on how, whether it is effective or not, what is the strategy for providing it, and to whom first? That is what we are doing,” he said. So far, the dengue vaccine is still relatively new in Indonesia, and the price is still quite high. The cost of one vaccine dose is around Rp500 thousand (around US$32.51), and two vaccine doses are needed to reach maximal efficacy. In relation to this, Pambudi stated that his ministry is also studying the method and strategy to achieve equally distributed vaccination across Indonesia. Furthermore, as the dengue vaccination is still being studied to become a nat
ional program, he advised the community to continue to take anticipatory steps by implementing the 3M measures. The 3M measures include cleaning water storage, closing water storage, and recycling goods that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes–those that spread the dengue virus–may use to breed. “Thus, do not rely much on the vaccine but on 3M (measures) plus vaccine,” he remarked. He explained that the vaccine is a new innovation and had just received approval from the National Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) in late 2022. He noted that currently, several regional governments have taken the initiative to carry out a dengue vaccination program for their residents, such as East Kalimantan. Currently, TDV has been distributed to many public and private health facilities for people who want to be vaccinated. So far, the BPOM’s permit for TDV is for people aged 6 to 45 years.
Source: Antara News Agency