World

Jakarta: The World Health Organisation has declared Indonesia’s polio outbreak officially over, following nearly three years of intensive response efforts, officials said on Friday.

Indonesia has remained largely polio-free as the highly contagious disease was declared eliminated in the country in 2014. But eight years later, an outbreak emerged in the country’s conservative Aceh province, prompted by a dangerous combination of consistently low routine immunisation and unhealthy environmental conditions. Officials say that polio immunisation rates in Aceh are well behind the rest of the country, with efforts hampered by widespread disinformation

that the vaccine is incompatible with religious beliefs, among other things.

The government has also been prioritising COVID-19 vaccinat

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