Anti-polio drive enters final phase

JAKARTA (JP): The government will launch the third and last round of a massive anti-polio immunization campaign next week to give the final boost to make Indonesia completely free from polio by the year 2000.

Inoculations will be conducted on nearly 22 million children on Sep. 2 and Oct. 7, Minister of Health Sujudi said yesterday.

In the first two rounds in 1995 and 1996, the government did not miss a single child under five years old, Sujudi said.

This time around, the government hoped for no less, counting on the support and cooperation of everyone, including the mass media, Sujudi said briefing the media at the Ministry of Information about the upcoming campaign.

He said a public information commercial on television on the immunization drive, starring Rano Karno and Mandra, was particularly effective in encouraging parents to bring their toddlers to the vaccination posts on the set dates.

"If they can't come to the posts, we will send our people to their homes," he said.

The central government allocated Rp 63.2 billion (US$21 million) in its 1997/98 budget for the anti-polio drive. This budget was supplemented by funds from regional administrations, foreign aid and the private sector, he said.

Sujudi said that during the upcoming campaign, children born after April 1 this year would also be administered the hepatitis B vaccine.

This would also be free of charge, he said, underlying Indonesia's ability to produce the vaccines.

Without the immunization drive, between 400,000 and 500,000 of 4.6 million babies born in Indonesia this year would be infected by hepatitis B by the time they reached the age of 15, Sujudi said.

The government hoped to free Indonesia from hepatitis B by 2013, he said, noting that Indonesia was the first country in the world to launch a nationwide anti-hepatitis B drive. (09)