Health Ministry On Polio Alert

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 (Bernama) -- All State Health Departments have been instructed to intensify the polio immunisation exercise, especially for children who do not get complete vaccination doses during early childhood.
To get complete immunisation, children are required to receive three doses of polio vaccine, Health Ministry's Director-General Datuk Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said.
He added the directive to the state departments was issued after a report by the World Health Organisation on the potential of polio spreading to the western pacific region with the reported increase in polio cases in Indonesia.
A total of 225 polio cases have been reported in Indonesia.
"The State Health Department should intensify efforts to identify the high risked children, that is, those who have not been given the immunisation like in the squatter areas, the interior areas and children of foreign workers," he said in a statement Wednesday.
He said more than 95 per cent of children in the country received complete vaccine doses against polio.
As part of the measures, Dr Ismail said the ministry had directed the state departments to identify and report cases of acute flaccid paralysis.
The western pacific region, including Malaysia, was declared free from polio in 2000. Only five indigenous) cases were reported in 1986 and three cases in 1992.
"Despite that, Malaysia and other countries in the region will have to take precautionary measures until the whole world is confirmed free from polio," he added.
Dr Ismail said a meeting involving the Health Department, Orang Asli Department, Defence Ministry and the relevant agencies would be held on Sept 13 to discuss measures to be taken to prevent the polio spread.
He added that a national contingency plan for the detection and response to importation of wild poliovirus infection had also been distributed to the relevant quarters.