Dr Afisa Zakariah immunising a child to signify the official launch of the campaign
Nearly three million children across the country are to benefit from the free polio vaccine campaign which is expected to begin from October 22 – 24, 2015.
The campaign, under the auspices of Extended Programme on Immunisation (EPI), will have about 24,000 volunteers going from house-to-house in all 108 districts to give the free polio vaccine to children under five years.
The campaign which is a mob-up to reach the missed children in the last programme will be the 50th undertaken by the country since it was started in 1996.
Dr George Bonsu, programme manager of EPI at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), said the programme has mapped out all hard-to-reach areas both on the islands and main lands and have informed the communities about the vaccination exercise.
“There will be supervisors who will make sure that the volunteers have gone to the places they have been assigned so we are ensured that no child within the 108 districts will be left behind,” he said.
He said the country has not recorded any case of polio since 2008, however, the threat of the disease emerging in the country still remains, thus the free vaccination to ensure that no child dies or gets paralysed by polio virus.
Dr Bonsu said last year’s programme was a success with 96 percent coverage and 12m children vaccinated in the two rounds of immunisation.
Dr Prosper Tumusiime, World Health Organisation country representative, commended the stakeholders in the polio eradication initiative for achieving high routine polio vaccination coverage of 90 percent at national level.
He, however, requested for the intensification of efforts on surveillance of the acute flaccid paralysis which is an indicator for the eradication of the wild polio virus in the country.
“We call on caregivers to take advantage of this opportunity and get their wards immunised,” he added.
Dr Afisa Zakariah, acting chief director of the Ministry of Health, who launched the campaign on behalf of Health Minister Alex Segbefia, mentioned that immunisation is one of the best ways to protect children against polio.
She, therefore, encouraged parents and guardians to continue with the free and safe routine exercise after the campaign.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri