Polio campaign goes door to door

Polio campaign goes door to door

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Health workers and officials were busy out persuading mothers to
take their children for two more drops of polio vaccine on
Tuesday, days before the planned national polio vaccination
campaign restarts (PIN).

Lina, 52, head of an integrated health service post in
Pangkalan Jati, South Jakarta, said she and fellow workers had
been knocking on doors in the neighborhood to encourage mothers
to take their children to vaccination posts.

The government is planning for two new rounds of polio
vaccination for 24 million children under five after finding
cases of polio-prompted acute flaccid paralysis around of Banten,
Jakarta and West Java, where the first index case was found in
April.

"Learning from our last vaccination drive, we are intensifying
personal approaches to parents to ease their worries about the
side-effects of the vaccines," Lina said. "Twelve activists here
have gone to some 300 houses in this area."

The health ministry reported that at least 6.5 million
children under five came to receive the oral polio vaccine in the
first round of vaccination on May 31.

However, in the second round vaccination on June 28, the
number dropped by some 700,000, prompted by reports from the
Legal Aid Institute for Health (LBH Kesehatan) claiming that at
least 61 babies had fallen ill as a result of the substandard
polio vaccine.

Official investigations later showed the illnesses were not
related to the vaccines and the World Health Organization and the
health ministry have assured the public the vaccines are safe.

Lina said during the week's door-to-door campaign, her team
had encountered many mothers who were worried about the negative
effects of the vaccine. "However, we will do our best to make
sure that all children here are vaccinated," she said.

A mother of a three-year-old girl living across the street
from Lina's house, said she was concerned about the impact of the
vaccine on her toddler.

"I know that they say it is safe, but as a mother, I have the
right to worry about my daughter's health," she said. She would
make sure that her daughter was healthy before taking her for the
vaccination, she said.

Ministry of Health director for immunization Jane Supardi said
that the individual approach to parents was proving effective.

"From our survey, mothers said that they would come to the
appointed posts when they were asked, either by a neighbor or an
officer," she said. The most resistance to the vaccinations was
coming from Banten and West Java, she said.

Meanwhile, in Depok, officers in a community health center in
Limo are using cold storage boxes to transport the vaccines to
the appointed posts.

"It is easier for us to approach poor families and ask them to
come and have their children vaccinated than approaching
residents in wealthy housing complexes," center head Lexiani
said.

Most wealthy mothers told health workers their children had
already received proper vaccinations or said they preferred to
take them to hospital for new vaccinations.

"My son has received a complete vaccination. Why should I take
him again?" said Renita, a residence of Cinere, Depok. "I believe
that too many chemicals or substances given to children will not
be good, even though they say it is safe to give more than the
required dose."