Progress Toward Measles and Rubella Elimination — Indonesia, 2013–2022

Abstract

In 2019, Indonesia and the other countries in the World Health Organization South-East Asia Region adopted the goal of measles and rubella elimination by 2023. This report describes Indonesia’s progress toward measles and rubella elimination during 2013–2022. During this period, coverage with a first dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV) decreased from 87% to 84%, and coverage with a second MCV dose decreased from 76% to 67%. After rubella vaccine was introduced in 2017, coverage with the first dose of rubella-containing vaccine increased approximately fivefold, from 15% in 2017 to 84% in 2022. During 2013–2021, annual reported measles incidence decreased by 95%, from 33.2 to 1.4 cases per million population, reported rubella incidence decreased 89%, from 9.3 to 1.0 cases per million population. However, a large surge in measles and rubella cases occurred in 2022, with a reported measles incidence of 29 cases per million and a reported rubella incidence of 3 per million, primarily related to disruption in immunization services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, approximately 26 million children (an estimated 73% of the target population) received a combined measles- and rubella-containing vaccine during supplementary immunization activities completed in 32 provinces. Progress toward measles and rubella elimination in Indonesia has been made; however, continued and urgent efforts are needed to restore routine immunization services that were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and close immunity gaps to accelerate progress toward measles and rubella elimination.