To overcome the problem, the health office involved police officers to help its health officers vaccinate children under the age of five.Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands (ANTARA News) - Many parents in the industrialized island of Batam have refused to get their children under the age of five vaccinated against polio for unclear reasons, a doctor said.
"They shut their door to health officers who approached their houses. Some of them were asked to go away," Head of Riau Islands Provincial Health Office Tjetjep Yudiana said here on Wednesday.
To overcome the problem, the health office involved police officers to help its health officers vaccinate children under the age of five, he said.
Tjetjep said on March 16 that hundreds of children under the age of five in the Indonesian province of Riau Islands are infected with HIV and that they cannot receive oral polio vaccine.
"Most of them live in Batam city," he said.
Data from the Batam Health Office shows that as of 2015, the city had 4,184 people living with HIV and 1,630 people living with AIDS.
A total of 620 people living with HIV/AIDS in the city have died.
Some 23 million Indonesian children under the age of five received polio vaccines during the National Polio Immunization Week held simultaneously in the country from March 8 to 15.
The immunization week is part of a nationwide campaign to promote residents awareness about the threat of polio. It is also part of the countrys commitment to work with communities worldwide to achieve total eradication of polio by the end of 2020.
The Director of Disease Prevention and Control at the Health Ministry, HM Subuh, said the government has set a target to ensure that 95 percent of the population is covered by the immunization program this year.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
