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)