In an effort to prevent the high mortality rate of Indonesian women due to cervical cancer, the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) requires the Indonesian people to receive cervical cancer vaccines. It is planned that this obligation will begin in 2023.
Later, the public will not be charged for the vaccine or free because it is fully funded by the state.
Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin in a webinar of the American & European Region Indonesian Health Diaspora Meeting uploaded on YouTube, on Sunday (18/4), said, “We will increase the mandatory vaccine from 11 antigens to 14, we will add HPV, PCV and rotavirus vaccines. , especially because most Indonesian women die from cancer because cervical cancer is the same as breast cancer, there is a vaccine for the cervix.”
Furthermore, Budi explained that the administration of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine or more familiarly called the cervical cancer vaccine is a preventive and promotive step taken by the government and is expected to be able to reduce the cost of cervical cancer treatment that must be incurred by patients.
“So the vaccination is to prevent, not treat sick people. We’ll have more (vaccines) not just HPV and several other vaccines,” said Budi.
Although more common in women, the HPV virus, which causes cervical cancer, also has a negative effect on men. Prof. Dr. dr. Andrijono SpOG(K) revealed that this type of virus can cause various skin and venereal diseases in men.
“In addition to causing cervical cancer in women, the HPV virus can also cause skin and genital diseases in men,” said Andrijono.
In his statement, the HPV virus can be transmitted to men through sexual intercourse with women who first suffered from cervical cancer.
According to the Ministry of Health, this mandatory cervical cancer vaccine program has actually been running since 2021 but is limited to two provinces and five districts and cities. Meanwhile, by 2022, the cervical cancer vaccine program will be expanded to three provinces.
Budi explained that the mandatory cervical cancer vaccine program will only run throughout Indonesia in 2023 and 2024.