Polio vaccination campaign to start as more cases confirmed<\/p>\n
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Just a day before the start of a mass polio vaccination campaign,
\nthe Ministry of Health reported on Monday two more cases of the
\ncrippling virus, bringing the number of sufferers to 16.<\/p>\n
\"The two newly confirmed cases came from samples taken from
\nLebak regency and Tamansari village in Bogor regency (both in
\nWest Java),\" Moh. Nadhirin, an officer with the ministry's
\nDirectorate General of Contagious Disease Control, told The
\nJakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He said his office was waiting for the results of 10 stool
\nsamples from acute flaccid paralysis cases from Sukabumi, 34 from
\nLebak and 14 others from Bogor.<\/p>\n
The health ministry will launch a mass polio vaccination
\ncampaign in the provinces of Banten, Jakarta and West Java on
\nTuesday to protect an estimated 6.4 million children under the
\nage of five from the waterborne disease.<\/p>\n
During the day, Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari is
\nscheduled to visit a community health center in Campaka village,
\nBandung, to observe the program.<\/p>\n
\"The vaccination will begin at 8 a.m. and last until 12 a.m.
\nin every designated post, and it will be free of charge,\" the
\nministry's director general of contagious diseases control, Umar
\nFahmi Ahmadi, said last week, adding that each vaccination post
\nwould serve between 100 and 150 children.<\/p>\n
Despite the declared readiness of both vaccines and field
\nofficers, the West Java local health agency reported a possible
\ndelay in the vaccination campaign in remote areas in Bandung,
\nCianjur, Karawang, Garut, Tasikmalaya, Purwakarta, Subang and
\nSukabumi.<\/p>\n
West Java Environmental Health Agency Director Fatimah
\nResmiati said that it would take between one and three days for
\nhealth officers to reach thousands of children in the remote
\nareas concerned. \"But we promise that every child will be
\nvaccinated,\" she said.<\/p>\n
The campaign is aimed at vaccinating all children under the
\nage of five, even in the absence of comprehensive vaccination
\nrecords.<\/p>\n
\"Each child require a minimum of four doses of oral polio
\nvaccine. But if the mother is not sure whether her child has been
\nvaccinated, the child had better receive a full dose,\" Indonesian
\nPediatrician Association chairman Hadiono D. Pusponegoro said.<\/p>\n
He dismissed fears that the vaccinations would produce side
\neffects in children who received more than the required dosage.<\/p>\n
The health ministry, with the World Health Organization's
\nsupport, conducted an outbreak response immunization program on May 25 to
\nprotect around 22,000 children in Giri Jaya village and its five
\nneighboring villages in Sukabumi, where the first positive polio
\ncase was found in March.<\/p>\n
All the children infected by polio had no history of
\nimmunization. It outbreak is believed to have been caused by an
\nimported polio strain from Nigeria, where the world last saw a
\npolio outbreak.<\/p>\n
Indonesia was declared a polio-free country in 1995, although
\nit still carried out vaccination programs for children until
\n2002. The Ministry of Health has also set up a polio surveillance
\nteam to monitor acute flaccid paralysis cases, which are usually
\ncaused by polio, among children under 15.<\/p>\n
Poliomyelitis, widely known as polio, is a highly infectious
\nviral disease that invades the nervous system and can cause total
\nparalysis, even death.<\/p>\n
The virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in
\nthe intestines, which is why oral vaccination is preferred.
\nTransmissions of the virus by immune and partially immune adults
\nand children is possible, and is likely to happen in countries
\nwhere sanitation systems are substandard.(003)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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