Ministry of Health (Ministry of Health) explained why only three provinces had started the programme immunization inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) in newborns from 1 December 2022.
Meanwhile, other provinces across Indonesia will only start the new program in 2023.
Health Ministry Communication and Public Service Office head Siti Nadia Tarmizi said the three provinces were effectively regulated pilot project which should be successful in providing a good evaluation and example to other provinces.
“This is a pilot project, so we need good coverage and community acceptance, and we know what the challenges are,” Nadia said when contacted. CNNIndonesia.comSunday (4/12).
Nadia explained that the government’s new program was carried out as an attempt to completely eradicate polio throughout Indonesia. Therefore, every infant in Indonesia is currently required to receive two IPV injections at the ages of four and nine months.
In addition, infants also receive drip polio immunization (bOPV) which is given four times, i.e. when the infant is one, two, three and four months old. Nadia ensured that all these immunization programs were done free of charge throughout Indonesia.
“Pio immunization, which is in fact a routine immunization given to children, has long been a national program and is provided free of charge,” he said.
On 9 October, the Ministry of Health received a report of a case of acute paralysis or AFP in a 7-year-old boy in Pidie district, Aceh province. After taking stool samples and laboratory tests, the results of VDPV poliomyelitis type 2 were obtained.
Recently, the Pidie District Health Authority reported three new cases of polio, bringing the total to four cases. However, the Ministry of Health has emphasized that three out of four children who have been tested positive for the polio virus cannot be classified as polio cases. Therefore, there is only one case of polio type 2 in Indonesia.
The Ministry of Health’s Immunization Management Directorate, Endang Budi Hastuti, argued that the other three children could not be classified as polio cases because there were no symptoms of paralysis.
(khr/rds)
