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Jakarta. A round of applause for 2016, please, as the year didn't do too badly on the health front, even in supposedly disease-prone Indonesia.
Although, who could forget the global Zika outbreak and the fake vaccine scandal which made top news this year?
No Zika, no cry
With Zika scares ringing alarms around the globe, Indonesia went on Zika-alert in August after an outbreak in neighboring Singapore.
More than 80 people were affected by the virus in the city-state, which led to a travel warning for Indonesians later that month.
The government then went on the offensive by installing health scanners at major transport hubs and entry points for Singapore tourists into the country.
In the end, no one in Indonesia was infected by the Zika virus, despite a large outbreak in other Asean countries including Malaysia and Thailand, which reported 8 and 33 cases respectively.
At least 45 countries reported cases of the dengue-like disease, which prompted the World Health Organization to issue a global public health emergency, which was removed in November.
Even our boys going to the Rio Games were worried by Zika, but they took the necessary precautions and brought home a couple of medals to boot.
Dengue, still a threat
The province of Banten declared a state of emergency this year due to a spike in dengue fever cases in February.
The province recorded close to 800 cases of dengue fever, with 26 fatalities, compared to the previous year’s 333 cases and 4 fatalities.
However, the medical fairies of Sanofi responded and brought their first dengue vaccine to the country.
The health ministry is still in talks with the pharma to include the vaccine in its national vaccination program, especially since Indonesia still records the highest average number of dengue cases per year in the region.
In a country that still reports cases of bootleg alcohol deaths and deadly food poisonings, it was not entirely a surprise though still extremely regrettable that reports of fake vaccines being sold and distributed all across the archipelago surfaced in June.
The fake vaccines were claimed to have close to zero side effects — they were placebos — but President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo called the case an extraordinary crime and instructed the Health Ministry to begin revaccination programs for children.
By the following month, the health ministry revealed that 14 health facilities had been administering fake vaccines for years, most of them in Bekasi, West Java.
Giving the health industry the benefit of the doubt, President Jokowi urged for a restructuring of the Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM), and said there were gaps to fill in the country’s pharmaceutical industry.
BPOM declared seven of the vaccines they confiscated during a wide-ranging investigation were fake, and police arrested 25 individuals from Jakarta, West Java and Central Java suspected of producing and distributing the counterfeit vaccines.
The case has been tried in court since November, with 19 defendants facing a minimum of a 15-year prison sentence and Rp 1.5 trillion ($111 million) in fines.
Also, keep your eyes peeled on the following developments on the health front in 2017:
2016 saw a multitude of sexual violence cases, many of which involved child victims, so the government deemed it necessary to introduce a new chemical castration regulation. Health Minister Nila Moeloek supported the procedure but the Indonesian Doctors Association chose not to back it.
To fight the stigma against people with disabilities, five Indonesian businesses established the Indonesian Business and Disability Network to promote inclusivity in the workplace. The network now has two more members and is looking for more members to sign up in 2017.
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