Antara, Jakarta – The Sumenep Health Office has reported that 17 children have died from measles up to this point in August. This grim toll has led the local government to officially declare the measles outbreak an extraordinary event.
To curb the further spread of the disease, the Head of the Disease Prevention and Control Division at the Sumenep Health Office, Achmad Syamsuri, announced a vaccination campaign targeting 78,569 children in the area. This measure is critical as 16 of the 17 deceased patients had not been immunized.
"We will conduct vaccinations in 26 primary healthcare centers across Sumenep and three hospitals on August 25, 2025, as decided in the cross-sector meeting earlier," Syamsuri stated in Sumenep on Friday night, August 22, 2025.
According to Syamsuri, the children targeted for the measles vaccination are between 9 months and 6 years old. The vaccination program is scheduled to run for 21 days, from August 25 to September 14, 2025.
"We have instructed all primary healthcare center heads to prepare for the implementation of this program, and starting tomorrow, we will distribute the vaccines to each center," Syamsuri added.
Currently, the Sumenep Health Office has received 18,000 vials of measles vaccine from the Ministry of Health, which is equivalent to over 80,000 doses, sufficient for the targeted recipients.
Based on the latest data, there have been 2,035 measles cases with 17 fatalities in Sumenep, the easternmost regency of Madura Island, East Java. The disease has an exceptionally high reproduction rate (R0) of 17-18, meaning one infected person can potentially spread the disease to 17 or 18 other individuals.
To address the outbreak, East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa has visited patients, observed the vaccination process, and held a technical cross-sector meeting. "The Indonesian Ministry of Health and the East Java Provincial Government have been directly present. Additionally, international institutions such as UNICEF and WHO are providing support," she said in a statement on Saturday, August 23, 2025.
Khofifah stressed that an integrated approach is necessary to manage the measles outbreak in Sumenep. This includes coordinated efforts between the central government, the provincial government, the regency government, and on-the-ground support from the military and police.