Officials do little to woo parents for polio vaccination
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
One day before the last scheduled round of the national polio vaccination, there was little sign in the capital that officials were putting forth any effort to ensure that all children under five would come for another two drops of oral polio vaccines on Tuesday.
Officials at several health centers visited by The Jakarta Post Monday said that it was business as usual at the centers ahead of the vaccination day.
"We have done this several times before, there is nothing special. We will be able to reach the target if there are not that many sick children tomorrow," stated one nurse at the Cilandak subdistrict health community center.
Similar comments also came from officials in Pondok Pinang and Jagakarsa community health centers, both in South Jakarta.
Dede Kartini, a health officer in Pondok Pinang, said that the mothers had been given cards during the first round of vaccinations on Aug. 30 that stated that they should come back for the second round on Sept. 27.
These minimum efforts were done despite the relatively low percentage of vaccinated children in Jakarta in the first round.
The last polio vaccination drive only covered 87 percent of the total 923,000 children under the age of five in the capital. And that was with the help of seven days of door-to-door reminders. The first day of vaccinations on Aug. 30 only reached 71 percent.
Those percentages were well below the first round of the polio vaccination program in May, which stood at 92 percent.
August's coverage was lower than the national vaccination coverage of 94.8 percent or more than 22 million children out of 23.3 million targeted.
Previously, some health community centers sent their staff member out to knock on doors in their neighborhoods to urge mothers to take their children to be vaccinated.
This time, there was very little evidence of signs or banners to remind people to take their children. There have been, however, a few TV spots featuring President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono giving the vaccine to a toddler and encouraging mothers to take them to the vaccination post this time as well.
Nonetheless, local health officers and health post staff said they would be ready.
"We are going to take 300 vaccines from the subdistrict health center today, which will be distributed to the neighborhood posts tomorrow morning," said Dede, who is in charge of 37 immunization posts.
Although her office recorded 5,464 children vaccinated during the May 31 drive, only 4,816 were vaccinated on Aug. 30.
Jakarta's city health officials blamed the drop on local pediatricians, who had been advising parents not to take their children for another polio vaccination as they had received enough.
Children will be protected from the polio virus if they have received the polio vaccines at least four times over a period of a few months.
According to the latest official data, 236 children under five have contracted the disease this year. The virus can spread very fast if certain conditions are met. Within the past six months, those 236 children living in 22 regencies/cities and six provinces have contracted it after polio re-emerged in the country this past March in Sukabumi, West Java.
The government hopes to fully eradicate polio by 2008. (003)