"As of Thursday, the total participants of this program reached more than 6.5 million children, or 76.9 percent. This figure has exceeded the expected target," the ministry's Director General of Disease Prevention and Control, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, noted in a statement from his office on Friday.
In detail, 6,528,963 children were covered out of a total of 8,491,178 targets who had received polio immunization in Central Java, East Java, and Sleman District, Yogyakarta Province.
In addition, Rondonuwu remarked that the realization of immunization in each region has also exceeded the figure.
In East Java, 3,580,916 children were covered, or 80.7 percent of the target of 4,437,679 million children, followed by Central Java, with 2,858,936 participants, or 73.2 percent of the total target of 3,903,678 children, and Sleman District, reaching 89,111 children, or 59.5 percent of the total target of 149,821 children.
He lauded the hard work of all parties who participated in supporting the achievement of the polio immunization target.
Rondonuwu expressed optimism that the synergy and collaboration that had been established would aid in continually achieving the Polio immunization target, with 95 percent coverage, at all levels.
He stated that the first round of Polio immunization will last until January 21, 2024. Hence, he urged all parents with children up to seven years of age and residing in the three areas to make the most of the remaining time by taking their children to community health centers or immunization service posts appointed by the government to receive free drops of polio immunization.
This program is implemented following the discovery of four cases of type 2 polio in Indonesia in 2022 and 2023, with one case identified in Pidie District, Aceh, on October 9, 2022. Polio infections were also detected in a three-year-old boy in North Aceh on January 3, 2023; a four-year-old boy in Bireuen, Aceh, on January 13, 2023; and a four-year-old boy in Purwakarta, West Java, on February 16, 2023.
Three additional cases were reported during the November-December 2023 period in a six-year-old child in Klaten, Central Java; a one-year-old infant in Pamekasan, East Java; and a three-year-old child in Sampang, East Java.
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Translator: Sean Muhamad, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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