Australia helps in fight against polio

JAKARTA: Australia has donated A$1 million to help Indonesia control a polio outbreak that has so far infected seven children aged under five.

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia David Ritchie said the assistance would held fund a house-to-house immunization program and the training of Indonesian health workers by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and the Indonesian health ministry.

"The campaign is aimed at immunizing all children under 5 in three provinces -- West Java, Jakarta and Banten, which are near to the affected district, Sukabumi," Ritchie said on Thursday.

The ministry of health's Bio Farma laboratory has investigated 17 suspected cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) in Sukabumi, with seven of them testing positive. The surveillance officer in Banten, meanwhile, has reported seven cases of AFP in Rawa Bebek and Cikamura villages.

A spokesman for the ministry, Suprijadi, said 9,301 children from 11 villages had received vaccine. (004)