Polio cases rises to 14

JAKARTA: The government on Wednesday reported six more polio cases, bringing the total number of children infected by the virus to 14.

"The six latest confirmed cases came from (blood) samples taken shortly after the outbreak, so they are not new ones," said the Ministry of Health's director general for contagious disease control, Umar Fahmi Ahmadi.

The World Health Organization said three of the newly confirmed sufferers were from Giri Jaya village in Sukabumi, West Java, where the first case of polio was found.

The remaining three were children from the neighboring districts of Lebak and Bogor, it added.

"We are still waiting for the results of laboratory tests on 11 other samples from Girijaya and 31 from Lebak," Umar said.

The government plans to launch a massive polio immunization campaign for an estimated 4.6 million children below five years old of age on 31 May until 2 June, covering West Java, Banten and Jakarta provinces.

The virus, which has not been found in Indonesia since 1995, was believed to have been carried in by Indonesian migrant workers or haj pilgrims from Saudi Arabia. -- JP