The Kpone-Katamanso health directorate in the Greater Accra Region has begun the 2020 National Inactive Polio vaccine (IPV) campaign across the municipality.
The week-long exercise, is on the theme, “Protect your child from polio, get your child vaccinated” and expected to cover over 10,052 children between the ages of one year nine months to four years old.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Kpone, Mrs Esther Patricia Biamah-Danquah, Municipal Health Director, Kpone–Katamanso, revealed that, Ghana Health Services planned introducing the Inactive Polio Vaccine (IPV) into routine immunisation in April 2016 but the actual introduction took place in June 2018.
According to her, over two million children born from January 2016 to February 2018 had missed out on the IPV vaccination saying the children did not have protection against the polio virus type two and could remain at risk hence the need to vaccinate them to ensure maximum protection.
Mrs Danquah explained that, Polio affected both children and adults but children under five years were most vulnerable and called on parents and school heads to cooperate effectively to ensure a successful exercise.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared Ghana a polio free nation but some suspected cases of Polio had been detected in the Northern and the Greater Accra Regions hence the need for the Polio immunisation in these two regions.
Thirty four health officers had been deployed into the various local institutions including, pre-schools, churches, mosques, market places and homes within the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality for the exercise.
GNA
