Government admits to more polio cases

Government admits to more polio cases

The Jakarta Post, Bandung/Yogyakarta/Jakarta

Following investigations into two recently-found polio-cases
in Sukabumi, West Java, the government has confirmed three more
cases, causing alarm that an epidemic of polio has broken out
after ten years of being free of the disease.

The outbreak has prompted the government to launch a massive
two-round immunization program that will be carried out in
Banten, Jakarta and West Java on May 31 and June 28, after
conducting a preliminary vaccination program in the locality
where the initial case was found.

"As of May 6, we found 15 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (in
Sukabumi), of which three were confirmed to have been caused by
imported wild polio virus similar to that found in Saudi Arabia,"
Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said in a press conference
on Friday.

Some 10 other cases were still awaiting examination results,
while one case had been declared negative, and another still
needed confirmation as to whether it was the wild virus or a
vaccine derived virus, she said.

However, the West Java provincial health agency reported 18
suspected polio-cases in Sukabumi.

The virus, usually infecting children, was suspected to have
been carried in by groups of haj pilgrims or Indonesian migrant
workers coming back from Saudi Arabia.

"There were no haj pilgrims from Girijaya (a village in
Sukabumi) last season and it is more likely that the carriers
were migrant workers from surrounding villages," the ministry's
director general of contagious disease control Umar Fahmi Achmadi
said, adding that more suspected cases had been found in two
neighboring villages.

A World Health Organization officer, Bardan Rana, said that
all the infected children had not been fully immunized for polio.

The health minister claimed that the children had not been
immunized due to either cultural reluctance of the family or
because of inactivity on the part of local health centers. "It
is not for financial reasons because the government provides the
vaccines for free," she said.

World Health Organization (WHO) representative Georg Petersen
admitted that as long as there were countries where the polio
virus was endemic, every other country was at risk of importation
of the virus.

"Especially if there are pockets where children have not
received vaccines," Petersen added.

The ministry is also conducting intensified surveillance in
Bali, Java, Lampung and South Sumatra, but has not yet planned a
national immunization program. "We have not yet planned this
nationally, but we have done as recommended by the WHO that
geographically and ecologically these three provinces are in need
of immediate preventive action," Umar said.

Several global donors have reportedly expressed concern and
contributed aid to run immunization campaigns, which is estimated
to cost Rp 8.45 billion (US$890,000) for vaccines alone.

Among the donors are the WHO, the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF), the United States Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention as well as business association Rotary International,
which have collectively set aside US$4 million for the campaign.

Australia, through its AusAID agency, has also agreed to give
A$1 million. (003)