Day: April 7, 2022

Amid World Health Day celebrations on April 7, Indonesia called for making health issues a priority agenda at the G20.

“Regarding the issue of global health architecture, Indonesia needs to push for more resilient health governance after the pandemic,” spokesperson for the Communications and Informatics Ministry Dedy Permadi said here on Thursday.

Health issues promoted by Indonesia at the G20 forum pertain to national interests, apart from global conditions during the pandemic.

Permadi informed that by discussing the issue of health architecture at the international forum, Indonesia could work together with other nations to create a better healthcare system so that people living in remote areas can have better access to healthcare services.

The health sector has not been left untouched by digitization amid the pandemic. One of the most tangible impacts of digitization has been the mass use of telemedicine applications for consulting doctors without having to visit the hospital.

Digitizing the health sector could help provide better health services to people living in remote areas, which could be improved through cooperation with other countries, he said.

Indonesia has raised three priority issues during its G20 Presidency: global health architecture, digital and economic transformation, and the transition to sustainable energy.

The ministry, as the entity in charge of communication and media for the G20 Presidency, expects that the public would understand the importance of the forum for Indonesia and the world.

G20 member countries contribute as much as 80 percent to global GDP (gross domestic product). They also play a major role in the trade sector, accounting for 75 percent of global trade.

The G20 Forum is also strategic because its nations account for 60 percent of the world’s population. The necessity of this forum for the public can also be seen from the three priority issues, which Permadi deemed as linked to everyday lives.

Apart from health issues, the issue of energy transition is also close to the public. As for digital transformation, the Internet, especially since the pandemic, has grown into something vital to society.

The latest data shows that the number of Internet users in Indonesia has reached 204.7 million, and most of them access social media. The use of social media has led to a number of users’ personal data being managed by the organizers of electronic systems or digital platforms.

Thus, there needs to be an agreement on cross-border data management.

Source: Antara News

The Jakarta Health Office stated that it is currently planning to provide booster vaccination services at bus terminals and train stations to accelerate the strengthening of immunity before entering the 2022 Eid homecoming exodus period.

“Bus terminals and train stations are part of our strategies. We are currently preparing them,” Head of the Jakarta Health Office Widyastuti stated at the Jakarta City Hall here on Thursday.

However, Widyastuti admitted that the Health Office had not decided on the terminals and stations to be chosen as vaccination locations.

The office will still finalize the plan by coordinating with related parties, she remarked.

According to the Health Office head, the vaccination posts at bus terminals and train stations would adapt to the situation and condition of the location on whether the vaccination would be provided on a daily basis.

Widyastuti stated that the Health Office will optimize the provision of vaccination services in the communities first.

She called on the people who will join the Eid homecoming exodus and had not gotten the booster dose to get the injection far before the exodus period to prevent problems during travel and long queues for vaccinations.

However, Widyastuti affirmed that her office had established cross-regional collaboration if those people have not received the booster dose and will get the booster at bus terminals or train stations.

“We have WhatsApp groups for all provinces in Indonesia. The surveillance team already has a collaborative network. Thus, we will inform each other,” she remarked.

According to data from the Jakarta Provincial Government, 2.84 million residents had, so far, received the COVID-19 booster vaccine dose.

Earlier, President Joko Widodo had emphasized that people would be allowed to join the Eid al-Fitr exodus if they had completed the primary vaccination and received the booster dose against COVID-19.

The president also noted that every exodus activity should be conducted in strict adherence to COVID-19 health protocols.

Source: Antara News

The breastfeeding phase plays an important role in preventing dwarfism in children, the University of Indonesia (UI) Public Health Faculty’s Public Health Nutrition Professor, Sandra Fikawati, stated here on Thursday.

“At least 23 percent of newborn babies are already congenitally suffering from dwarfism, so it takes greater efforts through breastfeeding to prevent a lasting condition,” Fikawati noted.

Hence, she deemed it necessary to pay attention to the nutritional needs of nursing mothers to provide optimal nutrition to the infant through breast milk.

“Nursing mothers must consume more nutritionally than pregnant women for an exclusive six months of (providing) breast milk to the baby, so that it is in good health,” she explained.

According to Fikawati, when a mother breastfeeds exclusively, the baby depends entirely on her for its nutritional requirements, so it becomes necessary during this time to pay attention to the mother’s nutritional intake.

“Moreover, currently, the prevalence of pregnant women, with chronic deficiencies in energy is high in addition to anemia. After childbirth, the mother does not have more time to improve her nutritional status, except by eating nutritious foods while breastfeeding,” she explained.

Fikawati suggested that the breastfeeding phase can become a government concern, especially for the Ministry of Health, which has a special program for preventing dwarfism.

In the ministry’s Specific Nutritional Intervention Program, nine efforts are made to prevent dwarfism both before the baby is born and after birth.

“When a nursing mother is required to provide adequate nutrition to the baby, she needs to have sufficient protein and nutrition herself. Hence, this is something that is missed by the Health Ministry’s program, which does not pay attention to the breastfeeding phase,” she stated.

Fikawati also recommended the government to provide subsidies to facilitate people’s access to foods containing animal protein.

Source: Antara News

Government spokesperson for the G20 Indonesian Presidency Maudy Ayunda stated that all G20 members would use the Quick Response Code (QR Code) to ensure implementation of health protocols in each country.

“This policy will be imposed on all G20 member countries and will be applied in stages in other countries,” Ayunda noted at an online press conference here on Thursday.

She stated that the consensus to use the QR Code was one of the results at the Health Working Group meeting of the G20 in Yogyakarta at the end of March.

The QR Code policy was a means to digitize documents of implementation of health protocols, which would — upon its application — synchronize global health protocols used in various countries.

The Health Ministry also initiated the use of a universal vaccine certificate verification system that complies with the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, she stated. The universal verifier is a special portal capable of reading vaccine certificate data from other countries.

“With this system, digital certificates of travelers’ vaccines can be (recognized) in other countries. This portal has been tested in 19 G20 countries and received positive responses,” he remarked.

The government also encouraged the use of the universal verifier in other countries, thereby assisting their efforts to handle the pandemic situation.

The synchronization of global health protocol standards would also provide certainty to travelers, she opined. Protocol standards that differ from one country to the other would cause problems, thereby hindering international travel.

Creating uniform global health protocol standards had also become one of the issues derived from the main issues of the global health architecture in Indonesia’s G20 Presidency.

“Why is unifying global health protocols so important? COVID-19 is still a global threat, including to Indonesia. Discipline in (following) health protocols is an absolute must, especially for traveling between countries. It will be a problem if the standard of health protocols varies between countries,” she concluded.

Source: Antara News

Acceleration of COVID-19 booster vaccinations is part of the efforts to increase protection for people during the Eid homecoming exodus period, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Siti Nadia Tarmizi stated.

During a discussion themed “Balada Booster dan Mudik Lebaran” (the Ballad of Booster and Eid Homecoming Exodus) here on Thursday, she noted that the community should understand that the policy to use booster vaccination as an exodus requirement is not a burden for people keen to join the Eid homecoming exodus.

“Actually, booster (vaccination) is one of our efforts to increase protection, because we know, as previously stated, the number of people, who will join the exodus is very large,” she pointed out.

Earlier, President Joko Widodo had stated that the number of people, who will join the 2022 Eid homecoming exodus, is projected to reach 85 million.

She noted that with the high number of people scheduled to travel, the risk of COVID-19 transmission would increase.

The spokesperson remarked that exodus activities would involve older adults, people with comorbidities, as well as children under the age of six. Thus, those three vulnerable groups should be protected through vaccinations.

According to Tarmizi, the trend of booster vaccinations had been increasing, from earlier 300-400 thousand people getting the booster dose in one day, to 700-760 thousand people per day.

Earlier, President Widodo had emphasized that people would be allowed to join the Eid al-Fitr exodus if they had completed the primary vaccination and received the booster dose against COVID-19.

The president also noted that every exodus activity should be conducted in strict adherence to COVID-19 health protocols.

As part of the efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government had rolled out a nationwide vaccination program targeting 208,265,720 citizens on January 13, 2021.

According to the Health Ministry’s data, as of April 7, 2022, nearly 197,243,959 Indonesians have received their first COVID-19 jab, 160,983,733 have been fully vaccinated, and 25,719,265 have received the booster shot.

Source: Antara News

Director general of health workers at the Health Ministry, Arianti Anaya, said she is optimistic that the Cancer Patient Navigation (CPN) program will improve cancer patients’ confidence to undergo treatment at domestic hospitals.

“Currently, many people still seek cancer treatment abroad. Hence, the program aims to increase the confidence of cancer patients in Indonesia to seek treatment at home,” she informed during a virtual press conference here on Thursday.

The program aims to ease the implementation of cancer treatment systems in a number of countries. However, it had not been implemented in Indonesia so far.

Hence, on 2022 World Health Day on Thursday, state-owned Dharmais National Cancer Hospital signed a partnership agreement for building professional CPN services for hospitals in Indonesia along with a number of parties.

The parties were a Switzerland-based affiliate company, PT Roche Indonesia, and an Indian institution, Tata Memorial Center.

“The collaboration is important to strengthen the capacity of Indonesian human resources to carry out integrated cancer patient services,” the director general added.

Meanwhile, president director of Dharmais National Cancer Hospital, Soeko Werdi Nindito, noted that 70 percent of cancer patients in Indonesia only come to the hospital when their disease has progressed to an advanced stage. This proves that the early cancer detection system in Indonesia is not working well.

“We are proud to have a partnership with Roche and the Tata Memorial Center regarding the capacity building program for the CPN program, and we believe it will support our mission to improve the survival rate of cancer patients in Indonesia through timely diagnosis, treatment, and palliative care,” he added.

The CPN program was developed by American doctor Harold Freeman in 1990 to ensure timely screening, diagnosis, treatment, and palliative care for cancer patients by involving professionals to assist patients and their families in the medical treatment process.

The professionals will also provide information, counseling, and reference regarding other required medical services.

Source: Antara News