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.