Indonesia’s Health Ministry launches a structured Rapid Response Playbook to tackle online health hoaxes, aiming to curb misinformation that has contributed to declining vaccination rates and recent infectious disease outbreaks.
Indonesia’s Health Ministry has moved to formalise its response to online health misinformation, launching a Rapid Response Playbook for Health Hoax Handling in Jakarta on Thursday, 17 September 2026. Deputy Health Minister Dante S. Harbuwono said the old, improvised way of dealing with false claims was no longer enough, as health rumours have become fast-moving and increasingly damaging to public decision-making. According to the ministry, the new playbook is intended to replace scattered responses with a more disciplined, institution-wide system.
The initiative comes after a difficult run of outbreaks that officials say were worsened by falling confidence in vaccination. The ministry said measles outbreaks in 2025 and 2026 led to the deaths of 72 children, while polio reappeared in several provinces, including Papua, West Java, Central Java and East Java. Health authorities have linked those outbreaks to a broader drop in childhood immunisation, with national coverage falling from 95% in 2023 to 87% in 2024 and then to 80% in 2025, well below the 90% to 95% needed to maintain herd immunity.
Data from the Communications and Digital Ministry show the scale of the misinformation problem. It identified 2,622 health hoaxes between August 2018 and September 2026, with immunisation issues among the most common themes. The World Health Organisation has previously warned that polio outbreaks in Indonesia underline the danger of low vaccine coverage, while reporting by the South China Morning Post in 2025 linked measles deaths in the country to vaccine hesitancy, distrust and misinformation circulating online.
The Health Ministry says it is expanding its anti-hoax system through tighter rules, clearer governance, stronger coordination across agencies and a dedicated reporting channel within Halo Kemenkes. Aji Muhawarman, a ministry spokesman, said false claims do more than shape opinion: they lead people into harmful choices that can cause illness, disability and death. The ministry is also building a microsite to let the public report hoaxes and find verified health information, as it tries to make its communication faster, clearer and more reliable.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
