Under the program, the first injection will be given when the infants are four months old, while the second one will be administered when the infants are nine months old.
"Thus, polio immunization is not only given when the baby is four months old, but is given one more time at the age of nine months," head of the surveillance, epidemiology, and immunization section of the Jakarta Health Office Ngabila Salama said here on Friday.
Jakarta has initiated the two-dose polio immunization program with Banten and West Java, she added.
The implementation of the two-dose polio immunization is in accordance with the Decree of the Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health Number HK.02.02/C/4834/2022 concerning technical guidelines for the implementation of the second dose inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV2) immunization program on October 5, 2022.
After Jakarta, Banten, and West Java, the Ministry of Health is scheduled to launch the program simultaneously across the country, starting early 2023.
Meanwhile, the drip polio immunization, or bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV), will be given four times at the age of one, two, three, and four months, she informed.
She explained that the bOPV provides protection against type one and type two polio. Meanwhile, the IPV, which is to be administered when a baby is four and nine months old, provides protection against type one, two, and three polio.
She expressed the hope that, through immunization, children can avoid getting infected with several infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB), Hepatitis B, polio, measles, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and pneumonia.
The Jakarta government is intensively carrying out immunizations through the National Child Immunization Month (BIAN) program for children aged 9 months to 59 months.
The vaccines provided under the BIAN program are the measles-rubella vaccine, polio vaccine (either in the form of injection or drops), and pentavalent vaccine.
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Translator: Dewa Ketut, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
Copyright © ANTARA 2022
