Hawzah News Agency (Jakarta, Indonesia) – An Indonesian pharmaceuticals company has said it is racing to produce a "halal" form of the measles-rubella vaccine amid concerns that conservative Muslim parents might deny their children’s inoculation on the grounds that it contains traces of pork.

The state-owned Bio Farma confirmed its research after the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), considered to be the Southeast Asian nation’s most authoritative Muslim body, declared the vaccination to be ‘haram’, or religiously forbidden.

MUI quickly clarified that in light of the dangers posed by the diseases, Muslims should continue to use the vaccine until an alternative was found.

However, its initial declaration that the vaccine was ‘unclean’ has provoked fears that conservatives may still shun the injection for religious reasons.

Bambang Heriyanto, corporate secretary of Bio Farma, said that the company was working together with MUI to develop new products that would address the problem.

"We are working so that the MR vaccine does not use haram or najis [unclean] materials in its production process," he told the Jakarta Post in a statement.

"It will take a lot of research and a long time to replace one of the components of the MR vaccine," he said. "It could take up to 15 to 20 years."

Last year the Indonesian government launched a national immunization campaign targeting all children between the ages of nine months and 15 years, with the aim to eliminate the diseases by 2020.

The deadly threat of measles in the 260 million-strong developing nation was brought home in January when an estimated 100 children died in Indonesia’s Papua province.

But despite the risks, CNN Indonesia reported that a number of towns suspended the vaccine before the MUI announced their ruling, or fatwa, on whether the shot conformed with Islamic laws.

The MUI fatwa commission secretary Asorun Ni’am said that it would only permit the medicine on the “condition of necessity” as there was no other option.

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