The number of children stricken with polio in Indonesia climbed to 111 on Tuesday, as the U.N. health agency reported 45 new cases of the crippling disease. One was confirmed on the island of Sumatra, which until last week was considered polio-free, said Oliver Rosen Bauer, spokesman for the World Health Organization's polio eradication program in Geneva. The other cases were all found in the provinces of Banten, West Java and the capital, Jakarta _ areas that already are undergoing large-scale immunization campaigns. Dr. Bardan Jung Rana, a WHO medical officer in Indonesia, said the rise was not unexpected. Most of the children affected "showed the onset of paralysis" before vaccinations began, he said, adding that patients need several doses of the vaccine before immunity is built up. Indonesia saw its first polio case since 1995 in April, The Associated Press reported. An emergency campaign to curb the disease involved vaccinating about 6.5 million children in West Java province, where the first case was found, and in the neighboring provinces of Jakarta and Banten. A second round of vaccinations was completed on June 29 in the same three provinces, three days after a similar, separate campaign targeting 78,000 children under age 5 in Central Java. Another immunization drive is scheduled nationwide and will include many of the same provinces. The disease is still endemic in six countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt.
