UNAIR NEWS – Looking at the lower coverage of immunization and triple elimination services in Covid-19 pandemic era, Universitas Airlangga Movement for Healthy Mother and Infant Movement (GELIAT), Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) in collaboration with UNICEF and Doctoral degree program of Public Health UNAIR held a national webinar on Saturday, August 15, 2020. The topic of the webinar was “Optimizing the Implementation of Immunization Services in Era of Covid-19 Pandemic Towards Adaptation to New Habits”. There were four speakers and one panelist from Head of East Java Provincial Health Office.
Amid pandemic, not a few people are afraid to go to health facilities to immunize their children. The results of the GELIAT UNAIR survey in 38 regencies / cities showed that the highest obstacle to immunization and triple elimination service is the burden on medical workers who are more concerned with Covid-19.
“Children need special protection in the form of immunization. Before the child is born, the mother also needs to be protected with a triple elimination service for syphilis, HIV and Hepatitis, “said Prof . Dr . Tri Martiana, dr ., Dean of FKM UNAIR in her remarks.
Low Immunization Coverage
One of the speakers, CKM Colonel dr. Achmad Yurianto, Doctor and Director General of Disease Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, said that Indonesia has an immunization coverage target per province of 46.5%. However, in June 2020 the highest coverage only reached 43.8% (Central Java).
Meanwhile, East Java alone is only 43% with a population of around 40 million people. In June 2020, all provinces experienced a significant decrease in IDL coverage compared to June 2019.
“Like Lampung, whose number (Covid-19, ed) is not too high, they also experience tremendous pressure (immunization, ed), this is our problem,” said dr. Yuri.
Regency / City Play an Important Role
According to dr. Yuri, the provincial level authority should be the control of the implementation of SPM (Minimum Service Standards), it should be broken down by regency and city. So, the policy is no longer centralized.
It must be studied again in more details, related to how the implementation of national policies at the regency / city level for immunization coverage. As the regency / city is the operational level of every national policy.
“There is a risk of an outbreak of PD3I during the Covid-19 pandemic. The risk will be even greater if there is no specific intervention related to operational policies in cities and regencies, “explained dr. Yuri.
Communication is the Most Important Strategy
Immunization must not be stopped, so communication is the most important strategy. It has changed the current national government strategy by prioritizing efforts to educate the public.
“Because our society’s obsession now is about the threat of Covid-19, now of course this communication is important,” he explained.
The basic in educating the public is first, it should not be centralized, because there must be a synergy with local wisdom on how to educate the community. Second, we must not rely on the bureaucratic path, because education must be implemented by everyone, including the role of top figures, such as religious and community leaders. They are essential and they must be managed properly.
Herd immunity can only be achieved with uniform and high immunization coverage at all levels. Immunization services must be the basic principle understood by all people in the nation, not only health workers. The government is pushing the Minimum Service Standards (SPM) to be the main focus of local governments.
“Even amid a pandemic, immunization must continue because immunization is the foundation of the nation’s future. Immunization is also the right of every child, to be healthy, “he concluded. (*)
Author: Ulfah Mu’amarotul Hikmah
Editor: Binti Q Masruroh
