“Up to now, 415 regencies and municipalities in 30 provinces have satisfied the criteria of high risk of polio incidence. We hope that all vaccines in the national immunization program can reach all of Indonesia’s children, because these vaccines help them survive and are therefore their basic human right. Immunization must be administered comprehensively and routinely to prevent children from suffering preventable diseases, which will greatly burden their parents and health services,” dr. Prima said.
Poliomyelitis or “polio” is an infectious disease caused by the polio virus. It attacks the nervous system, and the damage done might result in permanent paralysis. It has three strains: strain-1 (Brunhilde), strain-2 (Lansig), and strain-3 (Leon). Any individual may become infected with the polio virus from any food or drink tainted by the virus, which infects through feces and is related to bad sanitation in general. However, it can be prevented using oral polio vaccine (OPV) and injection polio vaccine (IPV) immunizations.
OPV is a vaccine created by weakening the polio virus. It provides a person with immunity against polio virus strain-1 and strain-3, while IPV is a vaccine created by killing polio virus and provides immunity against all three virus strains. According to the 2022 Ministry of Health records, the OPV coverage has gone down from 86.8% in 2020 to 80.2% in 2021, while IPV coverage increased from 37.3% in 2021 to 66.2% in 2022.
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dr. Prima went on to report that the Ministry of Health has prepared five new antigen variants to immunize children: second dose Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine (IPVV) to strengthen protection against polio, Pneumococcus Conjugacy (PCV) to prevent pneumonia, Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV) to prevent cervical cancer, Rotavirus (RV) to prevent severe diarrhea, and Japanese Encephalitis (JE) to prevent the eponymous disease. The new immunization variants will be administered in stages in several regions in Indonesia before expanding the coverage to include the entire nation, except for JE, which will be administered only in the endemic areas. (est)