First Lady launches polio campaign

Saturday, March 6, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 25)
By Rebecca Kwei
A TOTAL of 5.1 million children aged between zero and five years are expected to be vaccinated against polio through the two rounds of nationwide Poliomyelitis (polio) Immunisation Campaigns.
The first round of the immunisation is from March 5-7 and the second round takes place from April 23-25 this year.
Polio is an acute viral disease that is easily spread from human contact through contaminated food or water and can kill or cripple children for life.
The First Lady, Mrs Ernestina Naadu Mills, who launched this year’s polio immunisation exercise in Accra, said she was delighted to note that the number of polio cases in West Africa was going down.
Ghana, from September 2003 to August 2008, recorded no case of wild polio virus in the country until November 2008 when eight cases were reported in the Northern Region.
However, as of now no case has been recorded. There has been three polio cases from neighbouring countries from January to date as compared to 21 recorded within the same period last year.
Mrs Mills said the eradication of the polio disease in Ghana was a subject that ought to receive the utmost attention in preventive health care.
“Polio, one of the childhood killer diseases has no cure but a vaccine, which has been in existence since 1963 can prevent a child from being affected. It would, therefore, be very unacceptable to witness children in this modern era being killed or incapacitated by polio”, she said.
The Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), Dr Kwadwo O. Antwi-Agyei, said the rationale for the 2010 National Immunisation Days (NIDs) was to synchronise the exercise in 14 West African countries to ensure that the entire sub-region was free from the disease.
He gave the assurance that more doses of the vaccine was not injurious.
Dr Antwi-Agyei said a Vitamin A supplement would be added to the second round of the exercise for children between the ages of six months and five years.
The Chairman of the Ghana National Polio Plus of Rotary International (GNPPC), Mr Winfred A. Mensah, said Rotary had committed a total of $1,150,000 globally to help in the eradication of polio.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) representative, Dr Daniel Kertesz, on behalf of health partners, said the vaccination campaign was a collective responsibility of everyone to ensure that children received the life saving vaccine.