One week polio vaccination campaign starts in Ghana   

A one-week nationwide polio vaccination campaign to boost the immunity of children against all the three types of polio began in Ghana on February 19, which ends on the 25th of the same month, this year.

It is on the theme: “IPV CATCH-UP CAMPAIGN 2020.”

Nana Dr Albert Antobre Boateng, the Deputy Eastern Regional Director of Health Services, in-charge of Public Health, at a stakeholders meeting on the exercise in Koforidua, explained that it was targeting 252,855 children under-five years in the Region.

He said the campaign was also to capture some children who missed the immunisation against some types of polio in 2016, 2017 and 2018 due to shortage of the vaccines.

The target age groups are nine months, one year, and four years.

The children would be injected with the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) on their right shoulder.

Dr Boateng said the vaccination would be conducted at all health facilities in the country, while some health staff would visit markets, communities and schools to conduct the vaccination.

He said the Eastern Region was among the nine regions in the country where a special health surveillance detected the polio virus, which was expected to have been eradicated.

Mr Richard Essien, the Eastern Regional Coordinator of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), said there had not been any recorded adverse reaction to the vaccine, but urged parents to report to the nearest facilities if their children reacted to the vaccination.

He said Ghana had not recorded any polio case from 2008 until 2019.

The polio virus is easily spread through open defecation, which is being practiced in many parts of the country, he said.

Ms Bridgette Anim, the Eastern Regional Health Promotion Officer, called on the media to use their platforms to help promote the campaign.

She advised families sending their children for the vaccination to go along with their weighing cards.

Source: GNA