PIDIE: Children in school uniforms and toddlers with their parents lined up on Monday for polio vaccinations in the Sigli town square on the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, after four children were found infected with the highly contagious disease that was declared eradicated in the country less than a decade ago.

The virus was first detected in October in a 7-year-old boy suffering from partial paralysis in the province of Aceh near Sigli, and since then three other cases have been detected, prompting the mass immunisation and information drive.

Official say that polio immunisation rates in the conservative province are well behind the rest of the country, with efforts hampered by widespread disinformation the vaccine is incompatible with religious beliefs, among other things. The government has also been prioritising COVID-19 vaccinations since they became available.

The campaign that started on Monday aims to vaccinate some 1.2 million children in the province, said Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, the Health Ministry’s director general for disease control and prevention.

With some 275 million people, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous, and the largest Muslim-majority nation. Aceh is particularly conservative, and is Indonesia’s only province allowed to practice Shariah,.