New suspected polio case found outside West Java
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Bandung/Surakarta
As fears of polio infections grow in the country, another possible case was found in South Kalimantan on Tuesday, bringing the total suspected cases to 15, with four confirmed sufferers.
A local health agency in the South Kalimantan regency of Batola reported it had found a new case of acute flaccid paralysis, a possible symptom of polio. The sufferer was from Berangas village, Batola, 45 kilometers away from the South Kalimantan capital of Banjarmasin, Antara reported.
Like the previous cases found in Sukabumi, West Java, the latest finding showed symptoms of decreasing motor ability that usually follow polio infections in children. There were no other details.
Fears of an outbreak have led many worried parents to contact authorities to check if their children were suffering from paralysis. The parents of three-year-old girl, Lina Eka Setia, of Celep village in Sragen, 90 kilometers east of Yogyakarta, say she has suffered from paralysis in both her legs for the past 18 months after a fever, although they admitted she had earlier been vaccinated against polio.
The girl's mother, Astuti, said her daughter had received full immunization treatment, including a polio vaccination. She added that before her legs were paralyzed, Lina had suffered from a prolonged high fever. "After taking her to the hospital, her right leg got smaller and her foot bent," Astuti said.
The local health agency was still investigating the cause of her paralysis.
"The doctor from the local health community center reported that she was born with paralyzed legs, and it was not caused by polio," Sragen health agency head Joko Irnugroho told The Jakarta Post.
Joko said that polio immunization coverage in his area reached an estimated 96 percent of the total infant population.
In Bandung, a Hasan Sadikin Hospital spokesperson said that three children who were brought from Sukabumi to the hospital on Monday were likely to be polio-free. The children were taken to the hospital by the Legal Aid Agency for Health.
"Previous laboratory results of their feces specimens are negative, but we are rechecking them," polio treatment team member Suganda told the Post.
Siti Fitria, 7, Ismail, 3, and eight-month-old Muhammad Luthfi were being treated by a team of neuropad specialists to get the necessary physiotherapy, he said.
West Java Governor Danny Setiawan regretted the use of force in the transfer of the children to Bandung, expressing fear that such an action would spread the virus.
"Sukabumi health officers, with support from Hasan Sadikin Hospital and the World Health Organization, have done their best by conducting daily monitoring," he said. "There was no need to take (the children) to Bandung."
The Legal Aid Agency for Health had ignored Sukabumi health officers' warnings not to send the children to Bandung. Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said on Monday that all people suspected of having polio should not be moved to other cities to prevent any possible spread of the virus.
Poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio, is a highly infectious water-borne viral disease that invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis and sometimes death in non-vaccinated people.
The virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestines. After an initial infection, the virus is shed intermittently in feces for several weeks. During that period, the virus can spread rapidly through a community.
Transmission of the virus by immune and partially immune adults and children is possible, and is more likely to occur in countries like Indonesia, where sanitation systems are often substandard.
As of April 2005, the organization reported 1,267 global cases of polio, 792 of those in Nigeria. Until the recent cases, Indonesia had been free of polio for 10 years.