The Ghana Health Service says sixteen cases of type two polio have been recorded since July last year in four regions in the country. Samples of all these cases have tested positive.
This prompted the Service to declare an emergency outbreak and subsequently enforced measures to curb the situation. The number of cases have therefore necessitated the immunisation campaign of the Inactivated Polio Vaccination, IPV campaign which begins Wednesday, February 19.
The campaign targets children under four years. The Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Badu Sarkodie, who read the Health Minister’s speech at a media briefing Wednesday said the IPV campaign is to increase population immunity against polio virus type two.
The campaign will be carried out in all 260 districts in the country and expected to cover more than 2 million children.
In July 2019, a wild Polio Virus was confirmed in Tamale in the Northern Region. Also in August last year, another wild Polio Virus was confirmed in an Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) case in Ando Nyamanu Community in the Chereponi District. Since then, there has been confirmation of the virus in some parts of the country.
In response to this, the Ministry of Health and other health partners embarked on mOPV-2 reactive Vaccination campaign in the affected regions in order to deal with this type two polio virus. Therefore, the IPV campaign which is being undertaken Wednesday, February 19 is to reinforce the 2019 mOPV-2 reactive vaccination campaign.
Speaking at a media briefing, the Director of Public Health, Dr Badu Sarkodie, entreated parents, guardians, and care givers to take the opportunity to vaccinate their children. He gave assurance of the safety of the vaccines.
The vaccination is expected to end on Tuesday, February 25.
