Govt seeks MUI's help in polio campaign
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The minister of health is working with the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to facilitate an effective polio vaccination program across the country next month.
Launching the planned vaccination campaign with MUI ulema on Monday, on the sidelines of a MUI national congress in Jakarta, Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said the clerics would help the ministry by encouraging people to take their infants for polio vaccines, because "that will keep the babies stay healthy".
"Our staffers will check the babies' condition before we give them the vaccine. If the babies have a fever, or suffer other illnesses, we will not vaccinate them," Siti said in response to concerns that an infant could die after being vaccinated.
The deaths of four babies were recorded after the first day of the government's polio vaccination drive on May 31, which was one of the reasons for a low turnout in the second round of the vaccination program in June.
The next nationwide polio vaccination drive will be held on Aug. 30 and Sept. 27, targeting around 24.3 million infants. The government has allocated Rp 230 billion (US$230 million) for the campaign to cover 69,770.440 doses of polio vaccine, of which 49,770.440 were produced by health and research institution PT Bio Farma in Bandung, West Java. Donors will cover the remaining 20,000 doses of vaccine.
MUI deputy chairman Umar Shihab said MUI clerics had certified the vaccine as halal (allowed by Islamic law).
"All of vaccine stock is halal. Vaccine from donors is also halal and therefore the public has nothing to worry about," he said.
Arguments for and against the polio vaccine were rife following a vaccine boycott led by Islamic hard-liners in several Muslim countries in Africa, including Nigeria and Benin, last year when they claimed the vaccination campaign was a plot to sterilize or kill Muslims.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund are jointly working on a strategy of ensuring acceptance of the polio vaccine by getting top political leaders to persuade ordinary people about the benefits of immunization.
For almost a decade, Indonesia was listed among countries declared free of polio. But in April this year, several cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) were found in Sukabumi, Bogor, Cianjur and Bekasi in West Java; Lebak, Serang and Tangerang in Banten; Demak in Central Java and recently in Lampung.
As of July 17, the ministry recorded 291 Indonesian children with AFP.
Aimed at preventing a widespread outbreak, the ministry held polio vaccination drives in limited areas, which covered the capital city of Jakarta, West Java and Banten provinces, on May 31 and June 28.