Discovery of new polio cases spark fears of outbreak

Discovery of new polio cases spark fears of outbreak

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari confirmed on Thursday that
two more cases of polio were discovered in Sukabumi regency, West
Java, sparking fears of a serious outbreak of the crippling virus
in the country.

The new cases bring the number of known polio sufferers in the
regency to six.

"As of today, there are six confirmed polio cases in
Sukabumi," she said.

To prevent the spread of the incurable disease to neighboring
regions, Siti said, the local health authorities are "isolating"
the polio-affected area and forbidding the victims from leaving
their villages.

After having been declared polio-free in 1995, Indonesia has
now seen the reemergence of the disease. The first case since
1995 was found recently in Sukabumi, around 60 kilometers south
of Jakarta.

All of the recent victims have been children, whose parents
neglected to immunize them.

Health officials claim that this most recent polio virus
likely was contracted in Saudi Arabia, which had a recent
outbreak, apparently due to contact with people from Africa where
at least two countries are still fighting to bring the virus
under control.

The virus, the officials suspect, may have been carried by
Indonesian migrant workers or pilgrims returning from Mecca.

Siti said the government had no plans to examine any tourists
or businesspeople from Africa at seaports or airports as it was
not deemed necessary.

"We will focus on national surveillance and mass immunization
in West Java, Jakarta and Banten," she said.

The national immunization program is scheduled to start on May
31 and be completed in late June, for more than 5.6 million
children, mostly those most vulnerable to polio.

After the discovery of the new cases in Sukabumi, there have
been many other reports of paralyzed children across western
Java. However, none outside of Sukabumi regency have been
diagnosed as polio.

The Sukabumi health agency has reported 16 cases of possible
polio in people that have come into contact with patients. "But
none of them have shown symptoms of polio such as paralysis,"
ministry of health official, Yussharmen, said.

Jakarta health agency head Abdul Chalik Masulili said on
Wednesday that his office was examining 17 cases of child
paralysis in the capital, to find out whether any are polio.

The local authorities were now trying to immunize the
estimated 800,000 children under five-years-old in the city, he
added.

Poliomyelitis, widely known as polio, is a highly infectious
viral disease that invades the nervous system and can cause total
paralysis, even death.

The virus enters the body through the mouth, and multiplies in
the intestinal tract. After initial infection, the virus is shed
intermittently in fecal matter for several weeks. During that
period, the virus can spread rapidly through communities with
substandard sanitation.

According to the World Health Organization, one in 200
infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually affecting the
legs.

Transmissions of the virus by immune and partially immune
adults and children are also possible.