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Massive Indonesian vaccination drive against polio resumes
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-09-27 15:07

Indonesia embarked on a second round of vaccinations targeting more than 23 million children to curb a major polio outbreak.

Hundreds of thousands of health workers were deployed nationwide Tuesday to make sure that children younger than five were immunized against the crippling disease, which has infected 240 Indonesian youngsters since March.

The vaccines were administered in 245,000 posts at community centres and even airports, bus depots and railway stations, officials said.

Health ministry spokesman Sumardi said early turnout was good.

"It's going smoothly. Parents are enthusiastic to have their children immunized," he told AFP.

An Indonesian child receives polio drops during a mass polio vaccination in Jakarta September 27, 2005.[Reuters]

Sumardi said the first round of vaccinations in August immunized more than 22.9 million children, or around 95 percent of the number targeted. The World Health Organization (WHO), however, said independent monitoring confirmed that 85 percent were immunized.

Officials hoped this time that none of the targeted 23.3 million children misses the vaccine drops.

"We hope this time it could be as successful as the first national immunisation, at least reaching 23 million children," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said.

She said the drive had not been affected by an outbreak of bird flu which has so far killed six people in the country.

Some parents refused to have their children immunized in August following media reports that several youngsters died after being vaccinated. Officials said the children had died of other diseases.

An Indonesian child receives polio drops during a mass polio vaccination in Jakarta September 27, 2005. Indonesia on Tuesday kicked off the second round of a nationwide campaign to immunise more than 24 million children in a bid to stop the spread of polio in the world's fourth most populous country. [Reuters]

Fears that the vaccines could cause sickness have largely evaporated thanks to public information campaigns, Supari said.

At immunization posts in Jakarta's Menteng area, health workers said the turnout Tuesday was better than last month.

"Last month we had to go door-to-door to ask parents to immunize their children. Many said they were afraid their children would get sick after being vaccinated," said Dwi Wahyuningsih, a health worker who administered the vaccines.

She said 91 of 158 children aged under five who were registered in the area had received the drops as of mid-morning.

"More will come. If after noon not all children have been immunized, we will come to their houses to vaccinate them," she said.

Mawarni, 25, who brought her one-year-old boy for immunization at the post, said she did not believe in rumors that the vaccines could be deadly.

"I believe that the government knows what's good for our children... It is for the sake of our children's health," said the mother.

WHO official Bardan Jung Rana has urged Jakarta, with the assistance of foreign agencies, to consider another large-scale vaccination drive in November as well to effectively curb the spread of the virus.

The waterborne polio virus, which attacks and withers children's limbs and can kill them, reemerged in Indonesia in March, a decade after it was believed to have been eradicated in the country.

It has now spread to six of Indonesia's provinces.

The WHO says 19 countries have been reinfected with polio in the last two years.

Neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia have also been conducting immunization programs.

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