Up to 13% of children miss out on vaccination

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With health workers ending their house-to-house checks for under fives who missed the Aug. 30 polio vaccination on Thursday, the Jakarta administration fears not all targeted children have been vaccinated.

City Health Agency head Abdul Chalik Masulili doubted that the health workers could reach the remaining 13 percent of the 923,000 children targeted in the polio vaccination drive.

"We have done our utmost with house-to-house checks. But we only gave polio vaccine to 87 percent of the children targeted," he announced at City Hall.

In the first round of the vaccination drive on Aug. 30, the administration vaccinated only 71 percent of targeted children.

The percentage is lower than in May and June drive, in which 92 percent of children under five were vaccinated.

He blamed pediatricians who advised parents not to take their children to vaccination posts, arguing that those children had already been vaccinated.

A child is protected against the polio virus if he/she takes the oral vaccine at least four times over a certain period, or more during an outbreak.

"Many pediatricians fail to stress a parent's role in participating in the vaccination drive to rid the country of the wild polio virus. What we are afraid of is that the wild polio virus will stay in unvaccinated children and therefore we are still in danger of a polio outbreak," he warned.

As of August, polio has claimed eight lives in the country, mostly babies and toddlers. The first polio case was discovered early in May in Sukabumi, West Jakarta, some 60 kilometers south of Jakarta.

The city had been free of polio for more than a decade.

Despite the danger of a polio outbreak, many parents were reluctant to have their children vaccinated for fear of the adverse effects the vaccine may have on their children.

Doubt over the standard of the polio vaccine was high following reports from the Legal Aid Institute for Health (LBH Kesehatan) that some children had fallen seriously ill after taking the first vaccination as a result of substandard polio vaccines.

However, neither the health agency nor the Ministry of Health entertained any link between the vaccine and the infants illnesses, while assuring the safety of the vaccines.

"The oral polio vaccines are safe ... Children can take the vaccines many times," said health agency spokeswoman Zelvyno.

Another round of vaccinations is scheduled to be held on Sept. 27.

"I urge parents not to be reluctant to bring their children for vaccination. We cannot afford to discover another childhood polio case in the future," emphasized Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso.

I-box

Children vaccinated in Jakarta

Area Number

East Jakarta 251,393 children South Jakarta 176,860 children West Jakarta 172,906 children North Jakarta 131,212 children Central Jakarta 79,896 children Thousand Islands 2,434 children

Total 814,701 children

Source: City Health Agency