House Sets Up Working Committee On Fake Vaccine Control

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The House of Representatives' (DPR's) Commission IX has set up a working committee on spurious drug and vaccines issue to unravel how such vaccines continued to be circulated for around 13 years.

"The working committee will have a term of three months and will invite resource persons from relevant institutions to unravel various aspects of the fake vaccines problem," Chairman of the House Commission IX, Dede Yusuf, said at a discussion, "Dialectic of Democracy: Fake Vaccines," at the parliament building here on Thursday.

The resource persons will come from the Health Ministry, the Drug and Food Supervisory Board (BPOM), the Criminal Investigation Board (Bareskrim) of the National Police, hospitals, and leadership of the medical association, Yusuf added.

Hopefully, the working committee will be able to unravel how fake vaccines kept circulating, he noted.

Earlier, the government had also set up a fake vaccine control task force comprising representatives of the Health Ministry, BPOM, and Bareskrim.

"We hope the working committee will cooperate with the task force to find out more about and address the issue of fake vaccines," he stated.

The politician of the Democrat Party recalled that while the fake vaccines issue came to light in recent months, the fact is that the racket was going on for almost 13 years.

At a working meeting between the House Commission IX and the Health Ministry last week, Health Minister Nila Farid Moeloek informed that a total of 37 hospitals in nine provinces used fake vaccines.

However, the minister refused to divulge the names of the hospital.

"Upon our urging at the next working meeting, the Health Ministry which coordinates with Bareskrim disclosed the names of 14 hospitals that used fake vaccines," Yusuf disclosed.

Making public the names of the hospitals that administered fake vaccines will help put an end to such unsavory practices although the announcement could cause public unrest, he underlined. (WDY)