SANDAKAN, Jan 11 — The Sabah Health and People’s Wellbeing Ministry will intensify polio immunisation efforts in three areas comprising Tuaran, Sandakan and Kinabatangan which have seen polio cases reported over the last month.

Announcing this today, minister Datuk Frankie Poon said 10,000 vaccines had been prepared for children aged below five across the state, adding that a polio awareness programme would be conducted in targeted areas next week.

The two latest polio cases in the state comprise an eight-year-old in Sandakan and an 11-year-old in Kinabatangan — both children are foreigners, the minister told reporters when met at an event here.

Poon added that the vaccinations needed to be expanded to cover children up to 15-years-old in view of the 11-year-old in Kinabatangan, who had been affected.

In other developments, the minister confirmed that the death of a three-year-old child in Kota Kinabalu was not caused by the Influenza A virus (H1N1).

The child was admitted to Hospital Wanita dan Kanak Kanak Sabah (Sabah Women and Children’s Hospital) on January 6 in a severe condition after experiencing fever, fatigue, cough and a cold for three days. — Bernama