City resumes polio vaccinations

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Local health authorities hope to reach more than 923,000 children below the age of five during the third round of the nationwide polio vaccination campaign in Jakarta on Wednesday.

"Hopefully, we can vaccinate 100 percent of targeted children, or at least vaccinate the same number of children as during the second round of the polio vaccination campaign in September," Jakarta Health Agency spokeswoman Zelvyno said at City Hall.

In the second round of the polio vaccination program, authorities succeeded in vaccinating 96.23 percent of targeted children thanks to aggressive door-to-door checks involving volunteers and health workers. In the first round of the campaign, 92.38 percent of targeted children were reached.

Zelvyno did not specify how her agency would encourage wary parents to bring their children to vaccination posts.

"We will maintain the same procedures as in previous vaccination rounds," she said.

First Lady Kristiani Herawati is expected to officially open the third round of the vaccination campaign in Jakarta, in Mapar subdistrict, Taman Sari district, West Jakarta.

During the second round in September, many parents were reluctant to bring their children to one of the 8,028 health posts across the city because of rumors of defective polio vaccines.

The health agency denied the rumors, reassuring suspicious parents the vaccines were safe.

The agency said some pediatricians were also advising parents not to take their children in for a second round of vaccinations, telling them one vaccination was sufficient.

However, most health experts agree that children ideally should be vaccinated at least four times over a certain period of time.

Polio reemerged in the country after more than a decade in May, when a case was detected in Sukabumi, West Java, some 60 kilometers south of Jakarta. As of November, eight people have died of polio across the country.