TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Govt to step up immunization following Aceh polio discovery
Health authorities in Aceh province are gearing up for a polio immunization drive following the discovery of a type 2 polio case in Pidie regency.
Change Size
T
he government is calling on parents to inform their children of the importance of a hygienic lifestyle, as health authorities plan to step up immunization following the discovery of the country’s first polio case in four years.
A seven-year-old child from Aceh’s Pidie regency was found to have tested positive for type 2 poliovirus earlier this month, the Health Ministry’s director general for disease control and prevention, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, announced over the weekend.
The child previously showed symptoms of paralysis of their left leg, and is thought to have had no prior immunization, including polio shots. “I went to see the child the other day and found that they were still able to walk, albeit with a limp,” Maxi said in a statement on Saturday.
According to ministry records, coverage for both oral polio vaccination (OPV) and injected polio vaccination (IPV) in Aceh had been slowing over the past four years, with all regencies and cities within the province recording IPV coverage of less than 60 percent throughout 2022 alone.
Authorities have also pointed to unsanitary conditions as a probable cause of the new infection, after finding out that some local residents still defecate directly into a river where children are often found playing.
The discovery had prompted the government to declare the Pidie case to be an “extraordinary occurrence” (KLB), which would prompt the local health agency to step up surveillance measures, including running tests on fecal matter found in the river, in anticipation of more cases.
“Even though it is only one case, it has to be declared an extraordinary occurrence […] especially since the [case in Pidie] is of type 2 polio, which we thought we had eradicated,” Maxi explained.
Indonesia was previously declared polio-free in 2014 and had remained so until 2018, when authorities discovered a type 1 polio case in Papua province, which also suffers from low vaccination coverage. The Aceh case is the second such discovery since then.
Low immunization rates in Aceh and Papua also happen to reflect a national trend, with the ministry going on to identify some 415 regencies and cities spanning 30 provinces to be at a high risk of reporting new polio cases.
The decline in immunization take-up has coincided with COVID-19, which forced the nation to focus most of its health facilities and workers on addressing the pandemic.
“If we continue to miss our [national] immunization targets, especially since [that has been the case] for the past three years, it will just be a matter of time until we see more polio cases emerging,” the official said.
To this end, the government plans to kick-start in Pidie regency a mass immunization drive targeted at minors under 13 years, by Nov. 28, followed by province-wide immunization by Dec. 5.
Maxi said the government would also intensify its national immunization program for both IPV and OPV methods, in line with a global target to fully eradicate polio by 2026.
Separately, the head of the Indonesian Pediatricians Association (IDAI), Piprim Basarah Yanuarso, said that parents should set aside any concerns of side effects from getting their children vaccinated.
“One side effect of vaccines is fever, although this is not experienced by everyone. They may also experience swelling and redness of the skin where the shot was made. But once a child contracts polio, they could be paralyzed for life,” Piprim told reporters on Sunday, as quoted by Kompas daily.
