Indonesia may do selective polio vaccinations http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2006-05-08T174154Z_01_COL863619_RTRUKOC_0_US-POLIO-VACCINATIONS.xml&archived=False
Mon May 8, 2006
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia reached almost 24 million children in its last polio immunizations but may have another vaccination round in some regions to be sure of stamping out the disease by 2008, officials said on Monday.
Over the past year polio, once considered virtually wiped out globally, has infected hundreds in Indonesia.
Naydal Rusdal, a health ministry official, said up to 99.6 percent of the targeted 24 million children across the archipelago were vaccinated in last month's fifth round of immunization.
"With the success of the fifth round of immunization it is hoped that there would be no more cases of polio and therefore the target for Indonesia to be free of polio can be met," Rusdal told a news conference.
However, another health ministry official, Yusharmen, said the government may conduct another round of vaccinations in some parts of Aceh, East Java and North Sumatra provinces, but gave no timeframe.
The World Health Organization's Regional Adviser for immunization and Vaccines Development, Arun Thapa, said Indonesia had made tremendous progress, adding that the outbreak of the disease "is almost contained" in Indonesia.
He said the government was considering a plan for selective rounds later this year or to "use the opportunity in the measles immunization campaign to also give polio vaccine".
Polio's re-emergence in Indonesia and elsewhere came after Nigeria's northern state of Kano banned immunization out of fear it could cause sterility or spread HIV/AIDS. Vaccinations resumed after a 10-month ban. But the virus moved across Africa, crossed the Red Sea into Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and reached Indonesia, infecting previously polio-free countries along the way.
Between February of 2005 and February this year there were more than 300 cases in Indonesia, the health ministry has said.
The WHO says repeated immunizations are necessary. With four doses of polio vaccinations, a child should be immune, but some children might need more. In a country as vast as Indonesia, with infrastructure and bureaucratic reporting often hit-and-miss, repeated vaccination efforts also minimize the possibility anyone is skipped.
Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari has said each nationwide vaccination round cost around $11 million.
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