The Indonesian government is tackling an issue that has affected the country in more ways than one. President Joko Widodo came up with a plan to vaccinate at least 70 million children before the end of his term in 2019. However, Muslim families refuse to vaccinate their children because of the lack of halal certification, especially given out by one of the country's largest Islamic organizations, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).

MUI has mentioned in the past that they view vaccination as non-halal (forbidden) going as far as stopping vaccine campaigns arranged by local governments and health communities because of the supposed component of the vaccines which includes pork gelatin, an ingredient that Muslims deem as haram or not-permissible in traditional Islamic law.

The Aceh province recently dealt with an outbreak of rubella as a result of parents choosing not to vaccinate their children.

Experts are now calling this an "emergency" situation as Indonesia cannot afford to experience yet another outbreak. The health ministry is spending more than 60 million U.S. dollars to create campaigns aimed at convincing parents that vaccinations are mandatory. 

More than 90 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated for it to work.

Aceh has a seven-percent vaccination rate compared to Bali's 60 percent rate. The government is aiming to have a 95-percent vaccination rate, however, research has shown that in 2017 the country only managed to garner a 30-percent rate which is concerning to health professionals.

Quality control is an important step in Indonesia and the World Health Organization (WHO) oversees standard procedures of these vaccines before they enter the market.

Dr Joey Gouws from the WHO Prequalification Program attended Indonesia's first meeting of heads of National Medicine Regulatory Authorities, which drew in health professionals from across the globe and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The meeting was aimed at bringing the people and governments involved to tackle the issue of halal certification in vaccines.

"There's always a possibility that the virus or bacteria is in the environment so the moment you're not vaccinated, your immune system is exposed to that specific virus or bacteria and then of course you get the disease. So babies that are not vaccinated are going to get the disease and it's going to spread so it's extremely important once again to vaccinate everybody," said Gouws.

Although MUI have yet to come up with the certification of halal for vaccines, they have released statements saying that vaccines are important. But this has yet to convince parents to vaccinate their children which still puts Indonesia in a vulnerable position.

"We think as health professionals, the lives of kids or people that are vulnerable for vaccinations are important for us. But also that's why we are investing now in regulations of halal to make it clear and to detect the sources and to find the alternative practices," said Dr Abdulaziz Alsayyari of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority.

Now the goal of the health ministry is to work closely together with religious figures to conduct research on vaccine components and make parents feel comfortable about vaccinating their children to make sure an outbreak does not cripple Indonesia again.