City convinces public of polio vaccine safety on second round

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

First Lady Kristiani Yudhoyono is scheduled to open the second phase of the polio vaccination drive in East Jakarta on Tuesday in a bid to convince the public that the vaccination is safe.

Jakarta residents have grown uneasy about the program following reports that some children had fallen seriously ill after taking the first vaccination on May 31.

"Ibu Ani Yudhoyono is scheduled to attend the second polio vaccination at a post in East Jakarta tomorrow," Jakarta Health Agency spokesperson Zelvyno told The Jakarta Post, referring to Kristiani Herawati, the wife of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, by her nickname Ani.

Zelvyno said the presence of the President's wife was aimed at reassuring the public that the vaccination was safe.

She declined to comment further on other measures taken by her agency to convince the public to take their children under five to vaccination posts on Tuesday.

A senior pediatrician of city-owned Budhi Asih hospital in East Jakarta, Hot S. Hutagalung, confirmed that there was nothing to worry about in the second immunization.

"This oral polio vaccine is safe since the vaccination doesn't require any skill on the part of the health workers. It also doesn't involve any medical equipment," Hutagalung said.

However, Hutagalung advised that sick toddlers should not receive the vaccine until they get well.

"I think there will be health officers from the respective community health centers at every vaccination post, who could decide whether or not a particular child could receive the vaccine," he said.

Concerns over the safety of the polio vaccine made headlines following reports from he Legal Aid Institute for Health (LBH Kesehatan), claiming that at least 61 babies, including six in Jakarta, one in Depok, and one in Bandung, had fallen ill as a result of substandard polio vaccines.

However, neither the Jakarta Health Agency nor the Ministry of Health entertained any link between the vaccine and the infants illness.

The Jakarta Health Agency reported that at least 923,000 children under five came to receive the oral polio vaccine in the first round of the vaccination drive on May 31.

The number may drop during the second part of the vaccination drive as many parents are still not convinced by the government's assurances that it is safe.

"I won't take my two-year-old son for the vaccination, though, I did bring him to receive the first vaccine. I won't put my child's health at risk now after the report on substandard vaccine," said Maria, a resident of Jatinegara, East Jakarta.

Similarly, Ritno, a resident of Casablanca, South Jakarta said that concerns over the safety of the vaccine simply confirmed his skepticism of government programs.

"Such vaccination programs are only for poor residents, who cannot afford the vaccine, therefore, we cannot expect good quality vaccine from them," said the father of a two-year-old girl.

All children under five in the city must receive two doses of the vaccine in order to ensure that the capital is free from the wild polio virus.

The vaccination drive was triggered by a polio case discovered early last month in Sukabumi, West Jakarta, some 60 kilometers south of Jakarta, after the city had been free of polio for more than a decade.