JakartaPost-Dec 8
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin launched a month-long immunization campaign on Monday that aims to eradicate polio in Aceh through the vaccination of more than 1 million children, amid slipping child inoculation rates nationwide. The campaign was launched following the discovery of 4 polio cases, one of which was paralytic, in Aceh in early November. It was the first time in four years that Indonesia had reported instances of the disease. “I have asked the governor [of Aceh] to wrap up [the immunization program] before the end of the month, so that all children [in Aceh] can get their [polio vaccinations]. We do not want any more children in Aceh to be exposed to polio,” Budi said at Monday’s launch event in the province. The minister said Aceh had among the lowest provincial child vaccination rates in the country. The Health Ministry, with aid from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), aims to vaccinate 95 percent of children younger than 12 years old in Aceh, or some 1.2 million children, in December. Prior to the launch of the province-wide vaccination drive, local health authorities had focused their efforts on a regency-wide immunization program in Pidie, where the polio cases were discovered. That program was launched on Nov. 28. Acting Aceh Governor Achmad Marzuki said 79 percent of children in the regency had been vaccinated as of Sunday. Aceh’s OPV and IPV coverage has been declining over the past four years, according to Health Ministry data, with no regency or city in the province reporting greater than 60 percent IPV coverage this year.The low coverage in Aceh is part of a nationwide trend. While Indonesia was previously declared polio-free in 2014, authorities discovered a type 1 paralytic polio case in Papua province in 2018. The Aceh case was the first paralytic case discovered since then. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2022/12/08/aceh-polio-jab-campaign-targets-1-2-million-children.html
