POLIO IMMUNIZATION DRIVE LIKELY TO REACH 95 PERCENT TARGET by Fardah

 Jakarta, March 29, 2016 (Antara) - The Polio Immunization Week (PIN Polio) 2016 campaign carried out by the Indonesian government from March 8 to 15,  2016, is likely to have attained its 95 percent coverage target.

         First Lady Iriana Joko Widodo officially launched the PIN Polio 2016 in Mojosongo, Solo, Central Java, on March 8.

         She symbolically administered a dose of oral polio vaccine to a local baby boy.

         Minister of Health Nila F Moeloek, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Puan Maharani and Chairperson of Central Java PKK (Family Welfare Movement) Atiqoh Ganjar Pranowo also administered similar vaccines to several other children.

         In her remarks, Puan Maharani asserted that the  campaign is very important as an effort to ensure optimal vaccination against polio in Indonesia.

         Health Minister Nila Moeloek announced in early March plans to vaccinate 23.7 million infants up to the age of 59 months during the PIN Polio campaign to keep the world on track towards becoming polio-free by 2020.

         "We hope that this campaign can bring benefits so that the country can maintain its polio-free status and contribute to achieving the target of making the world polio-free by 2020," she said, adding that all infants must be given polio vaccine, so that they are immune to polio.

        

The national polio vaccination campaign was simultaneously conducted in 500 cities and districts in 32 provinces by setting up 300 thousand vaccination posts.

         "In 2014, Indonesia, along with other ASEAN countries, was awarded polio-free certificates," the health minister remarked.

         Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus that lives in the throat and intestinal tract. It is most often spread through person-to-person contact with the stool of an infected person and may also be spread through oral/nasal secretions.

         While polio is a distant memory in most of the world, the disease still exists in some places and mainly affects children under 5. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs).

         Among those paralysed, 5 percent to 10 percent die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.

         The WHO South East Asia Region was declared polio-free in 2014, marking a significant leap forward in global eradication, with 80 percent of the world's population now living in certified polio-free regions.

         The immunization week is part of a nationwide campaign to promote residents' awareness about the threat of polio.  
    "With polio immunization, we want to create a healthier and better quality generation which is free from disability because of polio," Minister Moeloek added.

         In the meantime, Director of Disease Prevention and Control at the Health Ministry, HM Subuh, recently said the country is committed to working with communities worldwide to achieve total eradication of polio by the end of 2020.

         The Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) has officially supported the immunization program.  
    In several provinces like North Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Gorontalo and West Java, the program coverage has surpassed the target of 95 percent.

         In West Java, it covered 99.3 percent of the targeted children, according to the province's health office.

         "Thank God, we have given polio immunization drops to 4,167,103 children out of the total target of 4,195,497 children under five years of age," Head of the West Java Health Office, Alma Lucyati, stated in Bandung, on March 29.

         The immunization week was observed in 27 districts and cities in West Java, from March 8 to 15, 2016, for children up to the age of 59 months.

         The coverage was nearly 100 percent, thanks to the support from various parties, she emphasized.

         "During the program's implementation, in order to achieve the targets of the PIN Polio 2016, we set up 52,151 PIN posts in Posyandu (integrated health posts) and hospitals, and also established 137 additional posts at airports, malls, supermarkets, terminals, and railway stations," she remarked.

         A total of 17,380 paramedics were deployed during the immunization week, and they were supported by 156,423 assistants.

         Internationally, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched right after the 1988 World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio.

         This initiative drove the World Health Organization (WHO) to support countries, including Indonesia, to further develop their polio control capacity in any necessary aspects, from laboratory reagents to a national campaign.

         According to the WHO, Indonesia moved from clinically based to laboratory based confirmation of polio cases in 1991. In 1995, Indonesia collaborated with WHO in advancing its surveillance system for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP).

         From over 800 cases in 1984, surveillance and immunization in Indonesia succeeded in bringing the number of cases down to 24 in 1994, and just 1 case in 1995. The last case of indigenous wild poliovirus was found on 23 June 1995 in Probolinggo District, East Java. 
    Indonesia introduced the National Immunization Week (PIN) for the first time in 1995. ***4***
(f001/INE/B003)
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(T.F001/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 29-03-2016 23:07:09