By
Dennis Peprah, GNA
Sunyani, Jan. 08,
GNA – The Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Wednesday started supplementary
vaccination exercise to protect children against poliomyelitis in the Bono, Bono
East and Ahafo Regions.
A total of 570,864
children below five years are expected to be vaccinated in the three regions,
during the four-day exercise expected to end on Saturday, January 11, 2020.
The vaccination
campaign, according to the GHS was necessitated following the outbreak of Polio
virus Type Two in parts of the country.
Poliomyelitis is a
highly infectious viral disease which mainly affects young children. The virus
is transmitted by person to person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route
or less frequently, by a common vehicle such as contaminated food and water and
multiplies in the intestines from where it can invade the nervous system and
cause paralysis.
Initial symptoms of
polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting and stiffness in the neck and
pain in the limbs. There is no cure for polio, and it can only be prevented by
immunization.
Last year, the GHS
reported several cases from Chereponi, in the North East Region, Kumbungu, and
Savelugu in the Northern Region, Central Gonja in the newly-created Savanna
Region and Nkwanta North in the newly-created Oti Region.
In the Bono, Bono
East and Ahafo Regions, two of three children who were infected died whilst the
other victim survived with some level of paralysis.
Cases were reported
from Asiri community in the Jaman North District of the Bono, Sissalaline in
the Techiman Municipality of Bono East and Kwasuso community in the Asutifi
South District of the Ahafo regions where 24-month-old girl, 33-month-old-girl
and 37-month old boy were infected respectively.
Addressing a news
conference in Sunyani, Dr John Ekow Otoo, Deputy Director, Public Health at the
Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regional Health Directorate said the Ministry of
Health (MoH), GHS and its partners had developed a plan to break transmission
and contain the poliovirus.
He explained the
confirmation of the Polio Type Two virus in Ghana led to a declaration of
Public Health Emergency of National Concern by the MoH.
Throwing more light
on the vaccination campaign, Dr Otoo said three rounds of the exercise had been
planned, and appealed to parents and guardians to cooperate with the
vaccination teams and ensure all eligible children were vaccinated.
The team involved in
the campaign would move from house to house, schools and fixed-post stations at
health facilities while the left finger of children vaccinated would be marked
with an indelible marker and all houses entered by vaccinating teams would be
marked as well.
Already, Dr Otoo
explained a round zero reactive vaccination campaign was organised from
December 19 to December 22, last year, in six selected Districts – Banda,
Berekum, Berekum West, Jaman North, Jaman South and Tain in the Bono Region and
101,242 children were vaccinated, a coverage of 98.3 per cent.
GNA
