Polio drive boosted by vocal officers

Polio drive boosted by vocal officers

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After their experience in the first two rounds of the polio
vaccination program, most officers seemed better prepared in the
third round of vaccinations on Wednesday.

At Kampung Melayu Bus Terminal in East Jakarta, The Jakarta
Post observed that health officers were taking the initiative to
approach bus passengers carrying children to offer free drops of
the vaccine, rather than waiting for parents to bring their
children to the post, as in the earlier rounds.

"I was little surprised when the officers suddenly came up to
me and asked whether I had brought my daughter for polio
vaccination today. I was relieved as they only wanted to give the
vaccine," said Nur, 26, a mother of a two-year-old girl, who
resides in Balimester in Jatinegara.

"An announcement from the loudspeaker at a nearby mosque woke
me up this morning ... The health workers had asked the mosque
keeper to make an announcement about the vaccination program,"
said Linda, a resident of Cijantung, East Jakarta.

She said that she was reluctant to bring her two children for
vaccination as the nearest post was two kilometers from her
house.

"But, I am sure that they won't miss coming to my home for the
vaccinations tomorrow because the coordinator is my next door
neighbor," she said half-jokingly.

Health officers will make house-to-house visits for the
following seven days to ensure that all children receive the
vaccine.

The post coordinator in Pondok Pinang in South Jakarta, Dede
Kartini, said that her team of health officers were very busy
administering the vaccine today.

"It seems that the number of children receiving the oral polio
vaccine is higher than in the previous rounds," she told the
Post.

About 82 percent of the total 5,323 targeted children in the
area were administered the vaccine on Wednesday, she added.

"We've intentionally skipped children belonging to several
well-off playgroups here from the vaccination drive today as we
have scheduled to reach them tomorrow," she said.

"We need a special approach to persuade children of high-
ranking government officials in order that they allow their
children to receive the vaccine," she added.

By 6 p.m., officials from the City Health Agency had not made
a calculation of the number of children who had received the
polio vaccine on Wednesday, saying they were still working on
reports from the 8,028 health posts across the city.

Over 923,000 children under five were expected to receive the
vaccine.

In the second round of the polio vaccination program in
September, the administration gave polio vaccine to 96.23 percent
of the total number of targeted children, higher than the 92.38
percent in the first round in August.

After a decade of being polio-free, Indonesia has experienced
an outbreak of the disease. The first polio case in 10 years was
discovered early in May in Sukabumi, West Java, and has since
spread to other parts of the country.