Indonesia polio cases hit 8, one treated in Jakarta

Indonesia polio cases hit 8, one treated in Jakarta

Indonesia has detected two new polio cases, bringing the total
number of infected patients in the country's first outbreak of
the crippling disease in a decade to eight children, a senior
health official said in Jakarta on Saturday.

All cases so far come from villages near the West Java city of
Sukabumi, but one of them is now being treated in a Jakarta
hospital.

Indonesia is the 16th country previously believed to be polio-
free to be reinfected in the past two years.

"Our update today is eight positive cases of polio. The
additional two cases come from the same cluster in Sukabumi,"
said Yusharmen, director of epidemiology at Indonesia's health
ministry.

Asked about the 20-month old polio patient who is now in
Jakarta, Yusharmen said: "She came from Sukabumi and was brought
to Jakarta by her family."

Polio mainly hits children under five and can cause
irreversible paralysis, deformation and sometimes death.

The outbreak occurred last month in Girijaya village near
Sukabumi, about 100 km (62 miles) south of Jakarta. Additional
confirmed cases have since emerged in neighboring villages, with
several suspected cases still being investigated.

Around 5,000 children in West Java have been vaccinated in
recent weeks. Preparations are under way for a major program to
vaccinate 5.2 million children at the end of the month across the
provinces of West Java, Banten and the city of Jakarta which
administratively is a province.

The WHO has said the Indonesian cases are almost identical to
a strain circulating in parts of Africa and that the disease may
have reached the country from Africa via the Middle East.

Health officials said it may have been carried by a migrant
worker or a Haj pilgrim who visited Saudi Arabia before returning
to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. --Reuters