City gets more children vaccinated

City gets more children vaccinated

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Bogor

Jakarta health agency officials have announced that 88 percent of
children under the age of five in the capital have been
vaccinated against polio.

Mothers holding their children in their arms arrived at local
immunization posts on Tuesday from early morning onward as
officials called through loud speakers for children to
have their second dose of the vaccine.

"The TV ads have helped a lot, we do not have to persuade the
mothers anymore," said Dede Kartini, the health officer in charge
of the vaccination drive at Pondok Pinang community health center
in South Jakarta.

A day before the second round of vaccines were administered,
the health ministry increased its public service announcements
on television.

With no additional effort from its officers, Dede's center
alone saw a massive increase in its coverage from 76 percent in
the last round on Aug. 30, to 88 percent on Tuesday.

"We are sure that we can reach 100 percent in the upcoming
campaign. Most of those who missed today's vaccination had a
fever," she said.

Several centers in South Jakarta reported a similar increase.
Public immunization posts located in bus and train stations as
well as fast food restaurants also reported an increase in the
number of children they vaccinated.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the city health agency had reported
that more than 88 percent of the targeted 922,963 children under
the age of five had been vaccinated.

On Aug. 30, Jakarta health officers vaccinated 71 percent of
the targeted children. After a seven-day door-to-door campaign,
an 87 percent success rate was achieved.

The percentage is well below the first round of the polio
vaccination program in May and June. At that time, the
administration reached 92 percent of children in the capital.

Last month it was reported that health officials had been
refusing to vaccinate sick children, for fear that it would
worsen their condition.

Despite the success in the capital, more than 200 mothers in
Bojong Koneng village in Bogor refused to have their children
vaccinated.

"Some 239 children were not vaccinated because they were sick
or their mothers refused due to their beliefs," said Bogor health
agency's head of epidemiology surveillance and immunization Eulis
Wulantari.

She said the refusals would prevent her office from reaching
the targeted 95 percent of 533,285 children under the age of five
in Bogor municipality. The area has seen 25 cases of the
crippling disease in 12 of its villages.

Separately, the health ministry's director for immunization,
Jane Soepardi, said her office was considering another round of
vaccinations in November as suggested by the World Health
Organization (WHO).

The WHO's advisor on polio, Bardan Jung Rana, explained that
in cases like Indonesia, where an outbreak had just occurred, it
was better to have more than the minimum four doses required to
immunize a child against the paralyzing virus.(003)