The Health Ministry has targeted to normalize the availability of the Meningococcal Meningitis (MM) vaccine nationwide by January 2023, the ministry’s Director General of Disease Prevention and Control Maxi Rein Rondonuwu .
Rondonuwu said the current scarcity of the vaccine in Indonesia is since producers of the vaccine that have obtained distribution permits from the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) are in the process of fulfilling the Corrective Action and Preventive Action (CAPA) prequalification from the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Thus, the manufacturers cannot fulfil the vaccine demands,” he noted here on Friday.
He remarked that the normalization attempts will be conducted by identifying the MM vaccine stocks across Indonesia, both at the regional Health Offices and the Port Health Offices.
The ministry has also redistributed the existing vaccine stocks to various Port Health Offices that have high demand for the vaccine.
Furthermore, the Health Ministry has coordinated with the Religious Affairs Ministry as well as the Association for Hajj and Umrah Organizers regarding the importance of implementing MM vaccination and the current condition of the private vaccination services.
“The vaccination services will be prioritized for (Umrah) pilgrims whose departure time is quite near. Hence, they will have sufficient time for their antibodies to be formed,” the director general remarked.
The Health Ministry has also coordinated with BPOM and state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma to meet the needs of the vaccines.
According to the result of the coordination attempt, an additional 225 thousand doses of MM vaccine have been obtained from PT Bio Farma.
Some 150 thousand doses of the vaccine have arrived in Indonesia and will be used by government-run vaccination services, while the remaining 75 thousand doses are intended to be utilized by private health care facilities.
In addition, attempts to ensure the availability of the vaccine are made by encouraging private parties to become involved in procuring the vaccine.
“Through these efforts, it is expected that the (available) MM vaccine (stocks) can be distributed to service facilities no later than the first week of October 2022. Thus, the implementation of the MM vaccination service for Umrah pilgrims can run well, and there will be no more limited stock of the vaccine at the MM vaccination service,” Rondonuwu said.
The Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI) has recommended that all prospective Hajj and Umrah pilgrims must receive the ACW135Y strain MM vaccination 14 days before their departure, with minimum tolerated time for receiving the vaccine being 10 days before departure.
“In future, the MM vaccination certificate will also be integrated with PeduliLindungi apps, just like the COVID-19 vaccine certificate,” the director general added.
Source: Antara News