Government readies health workers to combat polio

Government readies health workers to combat polio

The Jakarta Post, Bandung/Semarang/Sukabumi

Stunned by a polio outbreak, West Java is preparing a massive
deployment of health workers to stop the disease and prevent its
spread.

The West Java Health Office will deploy some 90,000 health
workers throughout the province to combat the outbreak, a
senior health official said on Saturday.

Over the course of a month, health workers will immunize over
three million infants in the province beginning at the end of
May, said Fatimah Resmitai, the head of the environmental health
section at the provincial health office.

"The immunizations will be free. Workers will go door-to-door
throughout the province so no infant will be left unimmunized,"
Fatimah said.

The program, launched following the detection of several cases
of polio in Girijaya subdistrict, Sukabumi regency, will
complement the work of Integrated Health Service Posts
(Posyandu).

The posts, which immunize children against different diseases,
including polio, were set up in almost every neighborhood in the
country during the administration of president Soeharto. However,
the posts have cut back drastically on their work since the
economic crisis in 1997.

According to a master plan from Jakarta, the 90,000 health
workers will be divided into teams of three which will be
assigned to different areas of West Java. Each health team will
consist of a supervisor, recruited from maternity wards and
medical schools in West Java, a Posyandu member and a health
officer who will perform the actual immunizations.

Fatimah said the immunization program was in response to the
polio outbreak in Girijaya subdistrict, Sukabumi regency. Five
infants have so far been confirmed as having polio, while another
13 infants are suspected of having the disease.

In Sukabumi regency, around 4,055 children in the regency's
four villages were given polio vaccinations on Friday following
the outbreak.

According to head of Sukabumi regency's health office, Buhono
Thaha Dibrata, the children were from Cidadap and Girijaya
villages in Cidahu district, and Citangkil and Cisaat villages in
Cicurug district.

He said that according to data from the Ministry of Health,
which sent polio samples to be tested at a lab in Bombay, India,
the virus might come from either west, east or central Africa.
The ministry, he said, sent the samples on April 23 and received
the result on May 2.

"That the polio virus can reach Sukabumi means our people
have high mobility. Many people travel abroad, such as to Saudi
Arabia to conduct the haj pilgrimage or to become migrant
workers. The virus can spread through people, food or things," he
said.

Before the outbreak, the West Java Health Office relied on the
Posyandu to immunize infants, but has had to change this strategy
in response to the outbreak.

"We will no longer wait for the ball. We have to go out and
actively pick it up," Fatimah said.

She admitted that the health office "had fallen asleep", with
the immunization rate in Girijaya subdistrict only 87 percent
this year, though still above the standard imposed by the World
Health Organization of 80 percent.

Fatimah said she had no estimate on how much the immunization
program would cost.

Separately, a top health officer in Central Java announced on
Saturday that no polio cases had been found in Central Java.

Budihardja, the head of the Central Java Health Office, said
his office had carried out immunization programs since 1995, when
the government launched its National Immunization Program.

He said his office strived for a 100 percent immunization rate
in Central Java.