TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government has requested additional anti-diphtheria serum (ADS) to the World Health Organization (WHO). The Ministry is requesting for extra supply to the WHO to anticipate increasing demand.

ADS is one of the serums used to treat diphtheria, a disease that has seen outbreaks in several cities in Indonesia. The ADS is especially used to remove white membrane in a patient's throat. In addition to ADS, diphtheria patients are commonly given antibiotics.

Read: Six Have Died of Diphtheria in December

House of Representatives's (DPR) health and employment commission member Ayub Khan said in Jember yesterday that there aren’t many factories that produce ADS in the world today.

"Because diphtheria has become quite a rare disease, so [producing ADS] has become something that is not very profiting," he said.

Nevertheless, the Health Ministry has stock of the serum. Thus, hospitals requiring them can request to get some through provincial health offices.

Ayub said that the WHO has responded and will send the serums soon.

The Health Ministry recorded 663 cases of diphtheria in Indonesia throughout 2017, and so far 38 people have died. In December, at least six patients are reported to have died.

The government has taken a number of preventive measures, including through the Outbreak Response Immunization (ORI) program, which is providing vaccines to millions of children. The problem is, the vaccine stock is only enough to inject millions of children by the end of 2017.

Read: Tempo News: 3 Diphtheria Vaccines and Importance of Immunization

"Every child needs to be administered the vaccine at three times until next year," Health Minister Nila Moeloek said last Tuesday.

Therefore, the Ministry has also asked PT Bio Farma (Persero) to speed-up vaccines production.

DAVID PRIYASIDHARTA