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Measles rates are expected to rise in Indonesia after the clergy announces that the measles vaccine contains gelatin extracted from pigs, making it a "sin".
This announcement has reduced measles vaccination rates in the Southeast Asian country from the recommended rate, from 95% to less than 8%.
Health experts are concerned that Indonesia is suffering from the measles epidemic and that measles can also lead to birth defects if pregnant women are infected with the virus.
Gelatin is added as a stabilizer for many vaccines and medicines to prevent damage during transport. According to the World Health Organization, Indonesia was until recently one of the world's most registered countries for measles. Although she produced her own vaccine against infection in childhood immunization programs, it was incomplete.
In 2006, the Southeast Asian country adopted a WHO-led plan to eradicate measles and rubella by 2020, but this plan was blocked after the Council Indonesian Islamic scholars have declared it "illegal".
The measles vaccine was vaccinated against only 6 of the 38 students at a primary school in Sumatra. Some parents gathered outside the school to make sure their children were not vaccinated, while others claimed that their children had to stay home to stay away from school. not vaccinate. .
After the abolition of parents to vaccinate their children, the Indonesian Ministry of Health has pressured the ulema to publish a "fatwa" in order to break down the vaccine in August, but the council says it will not work. declared "haram" or "sin" because it contained gelatin extracted from pork skin as a stabilizer.
The vaccine also contains trypsin extracted from pigs, which prevents the vaccine components from sticking to its glass container during its manufacture.
The Islamic Council of Islamic Scholars (UIA) pointed out that this was not an obstacle to the vaccination campaign, stressing that the option was up to the parents of the children if they wished. The consequences of the fatwa have already occurred: according to the Ministry of Health, only 68% of the children of the islands around Java have been vaccinated to date. In Aceh, governed by Islamic law, vaccination rates are only 8%.
A spokesman for the WHO office in Jakarta, the capital, said immunization rates were low in many parts of the country.
The WHO remains optimistic about plans to immunize 95% of Indonesian children against measles and rubella, and the deadline for vaccination has been extended until December.
Source: Daily mail
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