Health and Nutrition

Polio can be effectively and simply prevented with oral polio vaccine, which is safe and effective, even for children with other illnesses. Children who receive multiple doses will be protected for life.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is the largest public health effort of all time. It was launched in 1988 by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Rotary International, and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This alliance has linked governments, international organizations, the private sector, civil society and more than 20 million volunteers to drive polio from the face of the earth. Through a combination of national immunization campaigns, support for routine immunization, disease surveillance and outbreak response, polio cases have fallen by 99 per cent. Those countries where polio is still endemic are Nigeria, Niger, India, Pakistan, Egypt and Afghanistan. 

Delivering vaccines to every child under five years of age - more than 23 million in total - across over thousands of islands is a logistically daunting task and an extraordinary achievement. Data from government monitoring shows that 95 per cent of targeted children were vaccinated in the August round and 97.5 per cent were reached in September. This slowed the spread of the virus, but recent experience with similar outbreaks in Yemen and Sudan indicated that at least three well-executed national immunization days are needed to halt the transmission altogether. Experience in Indonesia echoed that assumption: In Banten, where the two targeted rounds were conducted prior to the national campaign, the spread of the disease had slowed to a trickle by the time children there received their third dose in August 2005.

Despite three national polio immunization days in August, September and November 2005, one case of polio was discovered in Bondowoso, East Java in January 2006, and one in Aceh in February. The Government, with UNICEF and WHO, held additional immunization days in 2006 in a bid to stop the spread of the virus. The fourth round was held in February 2006, and targeted over 23 million children aged 0-59 months. A further 23 million children were immunized in a final round in April 2006. UNICEF contributed US$10 million to support the initiative. 

Moreover, on June 27, 2006, polio expert team recommended to have additional polio immunization targeting 3,104,187 children under five in three provinces with 39 districts/municipalities in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, North Sumatera, and East Java to prevent the spread. The immunization cost about Rp9.230 billion funded by UNICEF and WHO to procure vaccine and operational cost. This way Indonesia will be expectedly free from polio by 2008.