Government to intensify immunization for polio

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In anticipation of the return of the polio virus due to increased international human traffic, the Indonesian government is planning to launch a national polio immunization program in 2002.

Ministry of Health communicable disease eradication and environmental health director general Umar Fahmi Achmadi said that Indonesia was still prone to polio despite a rigorous polio immunization campaign.

"The WHO (World Health Organization) has yet to declare Indonesia polio-free because they believe that anti-polio immunization programs in the past have not reached all the targets," Umar said as quoted by Antara on Monday.

Indonesia conducted national immunization programs in 1995, 1996 and 1997, reaching 22 million children aged under five years.

Umar said that next years' national immunization campaign was slated for September, with aims to vaccinate 25 million under fives for free.

Ministry of Health epidemiology, surveillance and diseases sub-directorate head Hariadi Wibisono, responsible for polio surveillance, said that visitors from countries with a high rate of polio, such as India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, had opened the way for the virus to return.

"We have managed to keep the virus out of our country for years. We are not going to let it return," he told The Jakarta Post, adding that it was last detected in the country in 1995.

The national immunization campaign is part of a WHO campaign to eradicate polio worldwide by 2005. The global campaign, A Polio Free World in 2005, began in 1988.

Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus which attacks the central nervous system controlling motor ability, leading to paralysis. In severe cases, it can lead to death by asphyxiation.

It can strike people of any age but mainly children under three. It spreads person-to-person through fecel to mouth contact. The virus spreads easily in a dirty environment. Research shows flies can passively transfer the polio virus from feces to food.

Polio surveillance is conducted by examining feces of children under 15 years of age who suffered from sudden acute paralyses.

Hariadi said that the campaign, PIN Polio, was also to anticipate the prolonged economic crisis which increased the number of low-income people.

"Their health status drops which eventually will increase the risk of catching polio," he added.