Rotary International pledges more support
Rotary International pledges more support
JAKARTA (JP): Rotary International pledged to help Indonesia again in the country's anti-polio immunization drive this year, its president said.
Herb Brown said in a press conference on Saturday that his organization would likely donate US$1 million to this year's drive, as the Indonesian government has requested.
Since 1987, the organization has given nearly $9 million to Indonesia's anti-polio campaign.
Last year, when Indonesia launched its National Immunization Drive in September and October to immunize some 22 million children, the organization also provided $1 million.
The free immunization program will be repeated this year and next year.
"All countries should free themselves of polio by holding similar drives," Brown said. "Even if there is only one country left with polio, our effort will be useless, because the disease can spread to other areas."
Only with such concerted efforts can the world's population rid itself of the disease by the year 2000, Brown said.
Among the countries which have conducted polio-eradication drives by holding nationwide immunization programs are Indonesia, China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.
In China and Vietnam, for instance, the immunization programs have greatly reduced the number of polio cases from more than 1,000 to about 100 cases per year. Both countries expect to see the number go down to zero this year.
Indonesia hopes to rid itself of polio by next year. It declared itself free of small pox in 1990.
The campaign to eliminate polio originated as a commitment made by the World Health Assembly and the World Summit for Children in 1988, which agreed to rid the world's population of polio by the year 2000.
Experts said that if every child under the age of five was given polio immunization, there would no longer be a chance for the virus to exist, both in the human body and in the air, since the virus can only survive in open air for less than 48 hours.
Some of the funds that the Rotary provided to Indonesia were used to help in the production of polio vaccines and for the procurement of freezers used to store the vaccine.
Tjoet Rachman, the organizer of Brown's visit here, said that Rotary International gave Minister of Health Sujudi and the Family Welfare Movement letters of appreciation on Saturday for their efforts in the polio eradication drive. (31)