Officials knock on doors for polio vaccination

Officials knock on doors for polio vaccination

Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The seven days following every national polio immunization drive
always mean extra work for Hanifa, a nurse working at the Pondok
Pinang community health center in South Jakarta.

Besides doing her usual work at the center -- assisting
doctors with incoming patients and taking care of mothers who
have just given birth -- she also has to go out into the
community to vaccinate children who skipped the fist day of the
polio vaccination drive.

"Assalamualaikum, has your son got better?" Hanifa asked a
mother busy sweeping her front veranda. As the mother replied
with a nod, Hanifa took out the vaccine she had brought with her
and went into the house.

The mother held her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, who had
been playing with her elder sister, as Hanifa dropped a dose of
oral polio vaccine into her mouth.

Hanifa glanced at the list she had with her before deciding
which other houses in the two community units she would visit.

"Today it is mine and two other doctors' turns to do the job.
We usually have volunteers from local health posts," she said
last Friday, adding that she planned to visit 27 children who
were sick on Sept. 27, the second round of the national polio
immunization drive. The first round took place on Aug. 30.

The government embarked on a nationwide polio vaccination
drive after the water-born disease resurfaced in Sukabumi, West
Java, last March.

Many parents, however, have refused to bring their children to
health clinics for vaccination for fear of side-effects. This has
prompted health officials and volunteers to go house to house.

With the door-to-door visits, health officials in Pondok
Pinang succeeded in increasing their immunization coverage from
88 percent on the first day to 94.5 percent of the 5,323 children
in the area after three days.

Dede Kartini, the center's immunization coordinator, explained
that her staff have not receive any allowances for the seven-day
door-to-door drive, even though they had to use their own
motorcycles.

"We will continue the visits until next Monday. After that, we
will ask the volunteers at local posts to tell the mothers to
take their children to our center as soon as they have
recovered," said Dede.

The Jakarta Health Agency reported that its coverage had also
increased from 88 percent on the first day to 94.77 percent of
the total of 922,961 children under the age of five in the
capital.

However, some areas continue to experience problems in meeting
the minimum coverage level as they have only a very few health
officials to conduct the visits.

"In my unit, the volunteers only report the children who have
missed out to the health center. Their officials act on the list
without our help," said Arjati Azhari, director of an integrated
health service post in Cideng, Central Jakarta.

Arjati said that considering that the Cideng community health
center had very few staff members, she doubted that all the
children on the list would be vaccinated.

She also reported that there were still mothers refusing to
have their children vaccinated. This had caused the vaccination
coverage to only reach 70 percent of the 160 children in her
area.

"I still feel that not enough has been done to counter the
rumors that children became sick after vaccination. The
government should do more," she said.