Indonesia Tuesday began the second round of immunization against polio to millions of children throughout the country.

The drive was a follow-up to the first one in August that immunized over 22 million yougsters.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono began the drive by giving vaccine to a child in a post in South Sumatra Province.

Director General of Disease Control of the Indonesian Health Ministry I Nyoman Kandun told Xinhua that the immunization targeted over 23 million children nation wide.

He said that the drive was part of the global efforts to eradicate polio outbreak, in which Indonesia targeted to be free from the crippling disease in 2008.

"We try to prevent the outbreak from becoming epidemic in Indonesia," he said.

Thomas Moran, communication officer for polio eradication of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Indonesia said that Indonesia played an important role in preventing the disease from ravaging the region.

"The success of immunization in Indonesia is crucial to prevent the outbreak's spread to other countries in Southeast Asia," Moran told Xinhua.

Moran said that the WHO was working with the Indonesian government to conduct another round of immunization in November.

There were 18 countries recently infected by the virus, he said.

Some 240 youngsters were infected with the crippling disease across Indonesia, according to WHO.

The waterborne polio virus, which attacks and withers children's limbs and can kill them, re-emerged in Indonesia in March, a decade after it was believed to have been eradicated in the country.

It has now spread to six of Indonesia's provinces.

Immunization programs have been carried out in some neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.

Source: Xinhua