Celebrities drafted in anti-polio drive
Celebrities drafted in anti-polio drive
Agencies, Jakarta
Thousands of health workers and a sprinkling of celebrities will fan out across the country Tuesday for an unprecedented drive to vaccinate 24 million children under five threatened by a polio outbreak.
Public relations efforts have cranked into high gear, with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono scheduled to tape a television spot promoting Tuesday's campaign and Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari expected to appear on national television with her grandchild receiving a dose.
Popular singers and actors will also publicly urge parents to get their children vaccinated and prepared to go door-knocking to encourage them.
A second round will follow on Sept. 27 to stamp out the virus that reappeared in March after 10 years.
"In addition to paralyzing children throughout Java and southern Sumatra, the outbreak continues to expand, and there is great risk that it could spread into neighboring countries," Dr. David Heymann, who is part of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s polio eradication campaign.
About 245,000 immunization posts will be set up at health clinics, bus depots, train stations and airports. The army and police will help deliver the vaccines -- by plane, boat, bicycle and on foot -- to some of the country's 6,000 inhabited islands.
Health authorities said the US$23 million price tag of the huge drive is a fraction of what the cost would be if the virus were to spread to nearby Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines -- and from there, unleashed on the world.
"We have to be aware that Indonesia is being followed very closely all over the world," said Georg Petersen, WHO's representative for Indonesia.
The waterborne disease, which can cause paralysis and muscular atrophy and more rarely death, reappeared in April nearly a decade after it was believed to have been stamped out.
Two UN-backed vaccination rounds were launched quickly after the first cases were reported, initially targeting 6.5 million of the country's estimated 24 million children aged under five.
The first round was hailed a success. However, it was followed by rumors that three children had died after receiving the vaccine, and only 5.5 million children turned up for the second round. The deaths were later attributed to other causes, but parents and even health workers were spooked.
Since the first cases in April, the number of cases diagnosed in Indonesia had risen to 226, causing an alarm to health workers.