Indonesia donated ten million doses of polio vaccine to Afghanistan.
The Indonesian ambassador to Afghanistan also pledged his country’s support for various sectors of the country.
“We have also previously discussed polio eradication with our partners. We have sensed the seriousness of the Emirate about eradicating the polio disease in Afghanistan. The issue of polio in Afghanistan, as previously mentioned, is related to the countries in the region, especially our brother country Pakistan. I have discussed with the Afghan health sector officials about the need to increase the development of primary health care services, and God willing, I will also share this matter with the health sector of my country.” said Budi R. Suryasaputra, the Indonesian ambassador to Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the acting minister of Public Health said that this ministry needs the cooperation of international institutions, not only in the polio vaccination sector but also in supporting primary health care services.
“The children who were infected with polio last year were all children who previously suffered from malnutrition and had poor health conditions. Therefore, I have tried as much as possible to persuade international committees and aid agencies not only to support us through our vaccination program, but also we need the support of international partners to improve primary health care services,” said Qalandar Ebad, the acting minister of Public Health.
“Awareness messages are more important than the implementation of the polio vaccine. If this program had been successful, we could have eradicated polio in the past 20 years, but unfortunately, polio cases still exist in Afghanistan. This indicates that we must work more on raising public awareness,” said Mojtaba Sofi, a doctor.
“We have Pakistan and Afghanistan [where polio is] still endemic, but the virus is cornered in a very few pockets in very few districts,” said Ananda Bandyopadhyay, deputy director of polio technology, research and analytics at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as quoted by Indian news outlet, The National.
The newspaper, citing experts on child paralysis, wrote that out of ten forms of the polio virus, only two types remain in remote areas of these two countries.
