670,713 children get 1st dose of polio vaccine

By Olivia Miwil - April 21, 2020 @ 11:49am

Some 670,000 children have been vaccinated for polio in Sabah.

KOTA KINABALU: 670,713 children under the age of 13 have been vaccinated for poliomyelitis (polio) in Sabah.

Sabah Health and People’s Wellbeing Minister Datuk Frankie Poon said the number worked out to 78.61 per cent of the targeted 853,265 children.

“Overall, the implementation of the Sabah Polio Immunisation campaign has been good which also saw 35.13 per cent of those receiving their second dose.

“The campaign is still ongoing, however, the implementation is slow especially due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) which first began on March 18 until 31, and then extended until April 28,” he said during the state assembly sitting, here.

Poon was answering a question by Datuk Isnin Aliasnih (Klias-Bersatu) on public response to the mass immunisation campaign.

As of April 6, he said there had been no new polio cases besides a boy from Tuaran, two in Sandakan and another one in Kinabatangan. Of the four, only one was hospitalised and the patient is reported to be stable.

Polio made a rude comeback to Malaysia last December after the disease was eradicated almost three decades ago.

Meanwhile, Poon also revealed that between 2012 and 2018, hospitals in Sabah had received 517 attempted suicide cases.

“The Health Ministry is no longer collecting data on suicidal cases, the last collection that was published through the National Suicide Registry was in 2009.

“World Suicide Prevention Day is celebrated every Sept 10 and World Mental Health Day every Oct 10 as part of the efforts to tackle suicide and attempted suicide issues,” he said in response to Datuk Limus Jury (Kuala Penyu-Warisan) on the national survey for mental health and the number of suicide cases.

Poon added that in 2015, Sabah stood at 42.9 per cent in the country for having the most mental health cases followed by Kuala Lumpur (39.8 per cent), Kelantan (39.1), Sarawak (35.8), Selangor (29.3). Pahang (27.8), Kedah (26.7),Terengganu (26), Perlis (24), Negeri Sembilan (24), Melaka (22.9), Johor (22.2), Putrajaya (20.7), Pulau Pinang (19.1) and Perak (17.6).

“The 2019 National Health Morbidity Survey (on mental health) has been completed in September (last year), however, it has yet to be published by the Public Health Institute," he informed.