Indonesia’s Ministry of Health introduced the first five-in-one vaccineproduced domestically on August 22, which is set to drive forward itsNational Immunisation Programme (NIP).
Speakingat the event, Minister of Health Nafsiah Mboi said the vaccine canprevent common diseases in young children, including diphtheria,pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza type B (HIB).
These common diseases are responsible for 17.2 percent of child deaths in Indonesia.
The country recently widely used a three-in-one vaccine preventingdiphtheria, polio and tetanus for children as part of the NIP.
The new vaccine will limit the number of injections required fromchildren and significantly reduce the NIP’s cost to the state.
According to the statistics released by the Ministry of Health, about87 percent of children receive routine immunisation, while othersliving in remote and island areas do not have easy access to the NIP.
Indonesia and India are the only countries in theregion to have been certified by the World Health Oganisation (WHO) forlarge scale vaccine production. India has been using the five-in-onevaccine ever since 2009.-VNA