Anti-polio campaign dealt setback after child's death

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post/Bandung

The mass polio vaccination drive suffered a setback after West Java health workers received news that one child died and five others fell sick after being vaccinated on Tuesday.

A four-year-old boy in Tasikmalaya regency died three hours after being vaccinated and five children in neighboring Purwakarta regency became sick after receiving vaccinations, West Java vaccination committee chairman Suganda said on Friday.

"We do not think the cases were caused by the vaccinations because polio vaccines do not have contraindications that could cause sickness or death, unless, they were already sick," he said after a meeting of the committee to evaluate the vaccination campaign in Bandung, West Java.

Suganda said the committee would dispatch five doctors to investigate the death of Angga, who lived with his parents in Cikalang Girang village, Tasikmalaya.

"We should have performed an autopsy but his parents refused," he said, adding that the investigation team would compile data and verbal reports.

Meanwhile, Bayu Asih Hospital in Purwakarta reported that five vaccinated children under the age of two experienced nose bleeds, high fever, diarrhea and vomiting.

The committee said the children were already sick and their symptoms were not caused by the vaccinations they received.

One of the children's mother, Anih, said health workers forced her to have her son vaccinated even after she told them her son had a fever.

"His temperature was not that high, but after being vaccinated he suffered spasms because of high fever," the 24-year-old mother said by phone.

Suganda denied the vaccination officers were at fault, saying the child's fever was not severe enough to prevent him being immunized. "The boy was ready to be vaccinated."

West Java Environmental Health Agency head Fatimah Resmiati said she feared these incidents would cause parents to avoid having their children vaccinated.

"We urge the vaccination committee to investigate the cases," she said, adding that there were no possibility the cases could have been caused by the improper storage of vaccines.

Suganda said that only one in every five million to eight million polio vaccinations caused paralysis, but not death.

He said that during previous polio immunization campaigns involving 22 million children nationwide in 1995 and 1997, two cases of paralysis were found, one in Kalimantan.

"If there are cases of paralysis after vaccination, it will only be one in every five million," Suganda said. "We may lose one child, but save 4.9 million others."