City starts house checks for polio<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Health officials and volunteers are going from house to house to
\nimmunize children under five who did not show up to receive the
\ntwo drops of oral vaccination on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
City Health Agency spokesperson Zelvyno said the door-to-door
\ndrive would be carried out for a week starting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\"We really do hope that parents will not refuse health workers
\nwho visit their homes ... because we want to ensure that the city
\nis free from the wild polio virus,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Agency data showed that 818,581 children under five took part
\nin the massive polio vaccination on Tuesday, or 88 percent of the
\nestimated 923,000 children in the city.<\/p>\n
\"The participation level in most areas in the city is quite
\nhigh, although the level was still below May and June levels,
\nwhich were around 92 percent,\" she said.<\/p>\n
The Thousand Islands regency enjoys the highest percentage of
\nparticipation with 94.46 percent, followed by East Jakarta with
\n94.05 percent.<\/p>\n
The lowest participation was recorded in North Jakarta with
\n86.5 percent, followed by Central Jakarta with 88.02 percent.<\/p>\n
The agency advised the public to ignore doctors who had told
\nparents not to take their children to get oral polio vaccines
\nbecause they argued the children had already received enough
\nvaccine.<\/p>\n
All children would be well-protected if they received four
\ndoses of the vaccine over a certain period, the agency argued.<\/p>\n
\"Many pediatricians fail to encourage parents to participate
\nin the vaccination drive to free the country from the wild polio
\nvirus,\" agency head Abdul Chalik Masulili said<\/p>\n
\"What we are afraid of, is that the virus will stay in
\nchildren who have not received the vaccine and we will remain in
\ndanger of a further polio outbreak,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia had been free of polio for over a decade until the
\nfirst new case was discovered in early May in Sukabumi, West
\nJava, some 60 kilometers southeast of Jakarta.<\/p>\n
By August, polio had claimed eight lives, mostly babies and
\ntoddlers, across the country.<\/p>\n
The government conducted an initial polio vaccination drive in
\nthree provinces -- Jakarta, West Java and Banten -- in May and
\nJune, but around 10 percent of the targeted 6.4 million children
\nthere were estimated to have missed out.<\/p>\n
The first round of the national polio immunization drive was
\nheld on Aug. 30, when 92 percent of some 24 million children
\nunder five across the country were vaccinated.<\/p>\n
Some parents have been reluctant to take their children to
\nvaccination posts due to fears of the medicine's adverse side-
\neffects.<\/p>\n
Doubt over the standard of polio vaccine was high after
\nreports by the Legal Aid Institute for Health (LBH Kesehatan)
\nthat some children had fallen seriously ill after taking their
\nfirst vaccination.<\/p>\n
These reports were later discredited after the children's
\nillnesses were found to be unrelated to the vaccines.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/city-starts-house-checks-for-polio-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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