Banda Aceh (ANTARA) – The Aceh Health Office has recorded four cases of polio or paralysis type two in the province, one of which is still being treated at the Piattinael Abidin Hospital in Banda Aceh.
“The first case is undergoing physiotherapy, while the other three cases are in their homes, because they are asymptomatic,” said Aceh Health Service disease prevention and control chief Iman Murahman on Thursday in Banda Aceh.
He explained that the three children who had been infected with the polio virus were the same as in the first case, that is, they had no complete background immunization history at all, so they were at high risk of contracting the virus.
“So, in the Mane, Pidie area, the risk is really high, because the basic comprehensive immunization rate is very low,” he said.
Initially, a case of polio infected a seven-year-old boy in Mane district, Pidie. After further developments, the government found three new cases also infected with polio virus type two, but without symptoms.
Developing the first case, his team took 21 stool samples from children in the area. Of that number, only 19 were eligible for laboratory testing in Jakarta, and three children tested positive for polio infection.
“These three children, one 2 years and 5 months, then 1 year and 11 months and another 5 years. They are really asymptomatic, unlike the first case which was symptomatic (paralysed),” she said.
At the moment the three newly infected children are at their respective residences, without having to undergo hospital treatment, because they are asymptomatic.
Even so, the medical officers of the health service continued to carry out epidemiological measures to find the source of the infection of the three children with the polio virus.
“There is no medical treatment for these three children, because there is no cure for polio. Because they are also not sick and have no symptoms, so there is no special medical treatment,” she said.
This news was published on Antaranews.com with the headline: Health Bureau: There are four cases of polio in Aceh, one is being treated
