Government claims success in polio vaccination drive

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The first round of the national vaccination drive against polio on Aug. 30 was considered quite successful as it reached 95 percent of the targeted children under five years old, the health minister said.

This represents 22.1 million children out of 23.31 million children under five in 33 provinces across the country.

However, Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said on Monday the number of children paralyzed by the disease continued to rise, as the polio virus in the country has a high attack rate.

Within the past six months, 236 children under five have contracted the disease, or seven cases higher than the figure 229 released on Sept. 1.

She urged parents to bring their children for the second vaccination on Sept. 27, particularly in Papua where the first only reached 64.8 percent of children.

"The next round should reach 100 percent of children, so that there will be no more polio cases found in the country, and we can achieve the target of making Indonesia free of polio by 2008."

She reiterated that the vaccine used in the country is safe, and is the very same vaccine given to 10 billion children all over the world.

Nearly one million children were not vaccinated during the vaccination drive in June, due to unfounded rumors that the vaccine caused the death of four children earlier this year.

The waterborne virus spreads when unvaccinated people come into contact with the feces of those with the virus, often through contaminated water in places with poor hygiene or inadequate sewage systems.

After nearly a decade after it was believed to have been eradicated in the country, the virus reemerged in April. It attacks the nervous system in young children, causing paralysis, muscular atrophy and sometimes death.

The virus has a high attack rate, as within only six months, it has been contracted by 236 children under five living in 22 regencies and cities in six provinces.