Thousands miss out on vaccination

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Remoteness and fears about the safety of the polio vaccine have resulted in some 400,000 under-fives in West Java still not been vaccinated seven days after a massive polio vaccination drive across the country started on Aug. 30.

West Java Health Agency director Yudi Prayuda said that many children living in remote areas with poor access, such as Cidaun and Cianjur, had yet to be vaccinated.

"... many parents are also refusing to let their children be vaccinated," he said after a meeting with members of the West Java legislative council on Tuesday.

According to local health agency figures, 91 percent of the targeted 4.5 million under-fives in the province had been vaccinated as part of a nationwide drive to vaccinate the country's 24 million children. The second round of the drive is scheduled for Sept. 27.

The waterborne polio virus reemerged here after an absence spanning nearly a decade, and has infected 226 children since March this year.

Right after the first cases in western Java were reported, two UN-supported vaccination rounds were carried out in May and June, initially targeting 6.5 million children.

However, unlike the first round, which was hailed as a success, the second round was dogged by rumors that three children had died from taking the vaccine, and so only 5.5 million children turned up the second time around.

Those three deaths were later attributed to other causes, but parents and health workers remained nervous.

Yudi said that in the latest polio vaccination drive, medical workers found it difficult to counter people's fears over the safety of the polio vaccine.

Even an edict issued by the Indonesian Ulemas Council saying that the vaccine is halal (permitted for Muslims), has done little to diminish people's fears, he added.

He said the health agency had conducted an extensive campaign prior to the vaccination drive and even drafted in eight experts to assure people of the need to vaccinate their children.

"Still, it's hard as health workers cannot force parents to have their children vaccinated. It's their right to refuse," Yudi said.