Families welcome polio program enthusiastically

JAKARTA (JP): Jakartans enthusiastically welcomed the government-sponsored polio immunization program yesterday, as was seen by the sharp increase in demand for additional vaccines from a number of polio vaccination centers.

Thousands of Jakartans accompanied their under-five-year-old children to the polio vaccination centers, thereby making it necessary for several centers to ask for additional doses of vaccine.

Spokesperson of the city health agency, Mariani Reksoprodjo, said several areas in West Jakarta and Cipinang, Campedak and Jatinegara subdistricts in East Jakarta asked the agency to send more vaccine.

"We send additional stocks of vaccine as soon as we receive the requests. This condition is caused by people's eagerness to participate in the program," Mariani told reporters by phone yesterday.

The municipal administration established 9,546 polio vaccination centers and deployed about 20,000 volunteers to carry out the city's part in the national program yesterday.

Deputy Governor for Social Welfare Museno said that, of the 9,546 vaccination centers, 7,927 were established in residential areas, 1,120 in preschools and kindergartens, 61 in hospitals and community health centers, 91 in marketplaces and 27 in inter-city bus terminals, the Soekarno-Hatta airport and Tanjung Priok port.

Registration

The demand for additional vaccine was also caused by random registration of children to be immunized. Many parents had no idea of where to go. They just visited the closest centers.

"My children are not registered in this center, but I come here because it is close to my house," Lilis, a mother of two, said in a vaccination center in Jatinegara.

The poor registration caused other centers to receive only a limited number of visitors. At about 11 a.m. a center in the Kebon Sirih subdistrict area, Central Jakarta, for example, was visited by only 40 mothers out of the 100 names registered there.

Mariani assured Jakartans not to worry about the immunization program because her agency has prepared enough vaccine for all children in the city under five years old.

She said about 117,000 bottles of polio vaccine have been prepared and each bottle has enough vaccine for four children.

According to the city administration's latest data, there are about 484,516 children under five years old in the city.

Yesterday's program was designed to eradicate polio in this country by the year 2000. The program was held for one day only in Jakarta, while in other cities the program lasts one week.

Museno opened the program in the city at 8 a.m. in the Klender housing complex, East Jakarta. (yns)