WHOsays RI needs more polio vaccination rounds

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The government and foreign donors have agreed that Indonesia should hold at least two additional rounds of a nation-wide polio vaccination drive next year in a bid to completely eradicate the crippling disease in the world's fourth most populous nation.

"This is not unexpected. Indonesia is a huge country, there are children in pocket areas who may miss the next round of national immunization. If the government holds another round of polio vaccinations, then we can be sure that we have stopped the transmission of the virus," World Health Organization (WHO) medical officer for polio eradication Naveed Sadozai told a press conference held on Friday to report the government's preparations for the third round of the polio immunization campaign, scheduled for Nov. 30.

He suggested that the additional vaccination round should be held in late January of next year and in late February or March followed by another local immunization round, known as mop-ups, focussing on certain areas with low vaccination rates.

Naveed expressed optimism about the country's polio vaccination program, as a recent WHO study revealed that the second round had slowed the spread of the disease.

Data from the Ministry of Health indicated that to date, 295 cases of the crippling diseases have been found in 10 of the nation's 33 provinces, making it the country with the third largest incidence of polio after Nigeria and Yemen.

According to the Ministry of Health, the polio cases became evident in May, when the disease re-emerged here after being eradicated a decade ago.

In the two earlier rounds (in August and September), the nation-wide polio immunization programs reached 97.4 percent of the targeted 23.6 million children under five.

The international community is closely watching the country's progress in eradicating polio amid fears that the disease could spread to neighboring countries if it is not quickly curbed.

Jane Soepardi, head of the immunization program at the Ministry of Health, is optimistic that the third round would reach more of the targeted children.

She said that in the third drive, the ministry would add more transit and mobile teams in nine provinces to make sure that 23.6 million children under five across the archipelago would be vaccinated.

"We will involve more soldiers, policemen, clerics, boy scouts, and members of social organizations to persuade people to take the children to the more than 250,000 immunization posts across the country," she said.

The cost of the immunization drive from the first to the third round is estimated to reach around US$39 million, said Jane.

The government has allocated around $2 million and the remainder is being financed by foreign donors including UNICEF, WHO, American Red Cross, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S.-based Center for Disease and Control Prevention, Rotary International, as well as the Australian, Japanese, British and Singaporean governments.