Officials announced today that the World Health Organization has declared the end of the polio outbreak in Indonesia after about three years of intensive efforts to combat the disease. Indonesia had been nearly polio-free since the infectious disease was eradicated in the country in 2014. However, eight years later, an outbreak occurred in the Aceh province due to a dangerous combination of low routine immunization rates and unhealthy environmental conditions. In 2021, only 50.9% of infants born in Aceh received the polio vaccine. Officials stated that polio vaccination rates in Aceh were much lower than in the rest of the country. Over the next two years, cases appeared in the provinces of Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java, North Sulawesi, Central Papua, Highland Papua, and South Papua, leading to a massive vaccination and information campaign. Approximately 60 million additional doses of the polio vaccine were administered to children. No cases of the virus in children or the environment have been recorded since June 2024, prompting the organization to officially declare the end of the outbreak.
