[ 2014-09-18 ]

Mass polio vaccination to start
Takoradi, Sept.17, GNA - The Ghana Health Service
would from Thursday begin vaccinating more than
500,000 children under five years against
poliomyelitis, the virus-causing crippling,
disease in the Western Region.
The exercise would be carried out nationwide
simultaneously to consolidate the country’s
success rate over the polio virus, which was last
reported in Ghana in 2001.

The Western Regional Deputy Director of Public
Health, Dr. Kofi Asemanyi-Mensah, told journalists
in Takoradi at a press briefing ahead of the
exercise that, volunteers had been trained to
visit households to dispense polio vaccines to 90
children per day.

He said the aim of the house-to-house campaign was
to enable traders and individuals who might not be
able to send their children to a designated centre
to have them vaccinated.

He said the first phase of this year's National
Immunization programme would be held between
Thursday, September 18 and Saturday, October 2,
while the second phase would come off between
October 30 and November 1, this year.

He said the region had been allocated GH¢500, 000
towards the immunization campaign and, therefore,
entreated the media to support the efforts of the
Ghana Health Service to create awareness and
sensitise the public to avail their children of
the vaccination.

Dr. Asemanyi-Mensah noted that although Ghana was
not one of the polio endemic countries, the
exercise formed part of a synchronized
immunization programme in West Africa because
Nigeria remained polio endemic in the Sub-region.

He said the World Health Organisation annually
spent one billion US dollars worldwide on polio
campaigns in an effort to eradicate the virus,
which mostly paralyzed its victims.

“Parents should not prevent their children from
being immunized against polio based on religious
beliefs or orientation because children are the
State’s assets, therefore, their health needs
are paramount,” he stated.

Dr. Asemanyi-Mensah assured the public that the
GHS had adequately resourced volunteers to visit
hard-to-reach areas in the region to vaccinate
children, and noted that the world stood to
benefit between 40 billion to 50 billion dollars
in two decades if the polio virus was eradicated.

He said Ghana had always recorded over 90 per cent
coverage during national immunization campaigns
due to the rapid response from authorities,
especially, when polio cases were recorded in
neighbouring countries.

The polio virus is currently endemic in three
countries namely, Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Nigeria. However, the virus can be found in 125
countries with about 1,000 children paralysing
daily.

Meanwhile, since the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative, started in 1988, polio cases have
reduced by 99 per cent with the vaccine reaching
over 2.5 billion children, while more than five
billion disabilities had been prevented
worldwide.

This year alone, 146 polio cases have been
recorded globally with endemic countries recording
128 cases, whilst non-endemic countries recorded
18 cases.

Source - GNA

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