This year's National Children's Day momentum, carrying the theme "Love Children, Protect and Build the Future," serves as a crucial reminder for parents to pay attention to their children's growth and development. One of the fundamental steps that must not be neglected is fulfilling children's right to health through the provision of complete basic immunization, especially to ward off the threat of deadly diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and polio.
Some members of the public mistakenly believe that these infectious diseases have completely disappeared from the environment. In fact, data from the Ministry of Health shows that the national complete basic immunization coverage in 2025 only reached 80.2 percent. This condition leaves nearly 960,000 children in Indonesia in the zero-dose category, meaning they have never received any vaccination, making them highly vulnerable to disease transmission.
Low immunization coverage has a direct impact on the re-emergence of Outbreaks (KLB) in various regions. Throughout 2025, there were 68 recorded cases of diphtheria outbreaks in 58 districts/cities, as well as 237 cases of pertussis outbreaks in 114 districts/cities with 409 confirmed cases. Previously, in late 2023, the discovery of acute flaccid paralysis cases due to polio in East Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, and Papua forced the government to declare an outbreak status.
To overcome these challenges, the Ministry of Health continues to innovate to ease access to immunization services, one of which is through the utilization of hexavalent vaccines since October 2025. This program, which combines protection against DPT, Hepatitis B, Hib, and IPV into a single injection, is expected to simplify the immunization schedule. In addition, the use of combination vaccines like DTaP-IPV, which uses an acellular pertussis component, has now become a choice due to milder fever side effects while still providing optimal protection.
The Indonesian Pediatric Society (IDAI) along with the Ministry of Health recommends administering the DPT vaccine in stages starting from the age of 2 months, followed by boosters at 18 months and 5 to 7 years. Meanwhile, polio immunization is administered from birth up to 4 months of age, with a booster at 18 months. Parents are urged to immediately check their Maternal and Child Health (KIA) books and consult with healthcare workers at the nearest facility to complete any delayed immunizations for their children.
