National Immunization Exercise  Against Polio 

The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service, in collaboration with health partners are organizing two rounds of National Immunization Days against polio in the ten administrative regions in Ghana  on the theme: ‘Kick Polio Out of Ghana; Vaccinate Your Child’.

The first round of the exercise takes off today, Thursday, 18th September, to Saturday, 20th September, 2014 with the second round taking place between Thursday, 30th October and Saturday, 1st October, 2014. 

Children  aged five years and below will be given a dose  of two drops of polio vaccines.  It is significant for all parents, guardians and caretakers to know that polio is a crippling and deadly infectious disease caused by a virus that spreads from person to person. 

The polio virus is also very contagious and lives in an infected person’s throat and intestines;  And spreads through contact with the faeces of an infected person and sometimes droplets from a sneeze or cough.

It should also be noted that a person can get infected with polio if he or she takes in food or drink contaminated by the faeces of an infected person.  Before the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, polio was endemic in over 125 countries and paralysed about 1, 000 innocent children daily, but through immunisation efforts, the incidence of polio has since decreased by over 99 per cent, whilst lives of about 2.5 billion children and over five million disabilities have been prevented worldwide.

In spite of the worldwide efforts, Polio is still endemic in three countries namely Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghansitan. Experts say that until polio virus transmission is interrupted in these countries, all countries including Ghana remain at risk of importation of polio.

Available information has it that the current polio virus outbreak in Africa started in Nigeria and is spreading to other African countries;  and due to the fluid and porous nature of our borders, the possibility of its spread is imminent. 

Synchronized polio campaigns have therefore been planned and launched in the sub region to check its spread.  Ghana is  as a result joining other West African countries to begin today two rounds of synchronized polio National Imminisation Days as part of an ‘End Game Strategy’ to eradicate the disease.

The goal of the two rounds  is to maintain Ghana’s gains towards polio eradication and halt the transmission in the sub region.
 
There is no doubt that Ghana has been successful in in the fight to end polio in the country in particular and world in general through quality routine immunization and periodic mass campaigns, as well as intensified surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis cases.
 
Indeed, since the outbreak in 2008, where Ghana reported eight wild polio virus cases, the county has succeeded in stamping out polio for six consecutive years and commendation must be given to the various programme managers of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) of the Ghana Health Service.
 
All parents are to note that during the two rounds of the exercise, trained immunisation teams will move from house to house to  deliver two drops of polio vaccine to their children aged between zero and 59 months. 

This will be complemented by teams that will be stationed at various  health facilities, markets and border posts.
 
While  mothers and caretakers are urged to ensure that all children are vaccinated, the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service also  appeal to  corporate bodies, district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies, educational institutions, religious bodies and the media to join in the campaign against polio in Ghana by supporting regional and district health officials to conduct a successful campaign.  

Collectively let us kick polio out of Ghana by vaccinating our children.

By Dan Osman Mwin of the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Health