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.