Public urged to fully participate in polio vaccination

Traditional leaders, religious organisations, and parents in the Hohoe Municipality of the Volta Region have been urged to fully participate in the nationwide polio vaccination, which starts on Thursday, September 1.

The exercise is themed “Keep Polio Out of Ghana. Vaccinate Your Child Now!”.

Polio has been one of the diseases controlled in the past through immunisation to prevent children from contracting it.

Mr. Daniel Noble Awume, the Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), during the launch of the 2022 National Immunisation Day against Polio on Wednesday, said the vaccines had been approved and would be administered by trained personnel.

He called on traditional leaders to also help by sensitising their community members as a form of support towards the exercise to meet its target.

Madam Gift Asempa, the Hohoe Municipal Director of Health Services, said the vaccination would be in two rounds in response to the ongoing circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Virus type 2 (nVDPV2) outbreak.

She said the first round commenced on Thursday, September 1, and will end on Sunday, September 4, while the second one comes off on October 6 to 9, 2022.

Madam Asempa said the vaccination was a programme of the Ghana Health Service and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

The Service used the Novel Oral Polio Vaccine Type two (nOPV2), a weakened vaccine given orally.

“The inactivated polio vaccines are safe and will be administered orally to children zero to 59 months by trained health personnel.”

Madam Asempa said the exercise targeted about 42,000 children and called on the media to support the programme by creating public awareness of the need for parents to embrace the exercise and avail their children for vaccination.