The Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) yesterday launched a polio vaccination campaign to create awareness about the Ghana Health Service’s (GHS) upcoming mass polio vaccination exercise.
The government rolled out a vaccination project targeted at vaccinating children under five years across the country.
The exercise, which will be undertaken from October 6 to October 9 this year, is expected to increase population immunity against the Type 2 polio virus and break transmission of the disease. Over six million children in the country are expected to receive the novel Oral Polio Vaccine Type 2 (nOPV2) for this second round of the exercise.
Launching it, president of the GRCS, Mr Kwame Gyimah-Akwafo, said the campaign formed part of efforts by his outfit to help contain the spread of the polio virus in Ghana.
He mentioned that his outfit had deployed 400 volunteers across all 16 regions of the country to mobilise communities and intensify awareness for the second round polio vaccination exercise in Ghana.
He explained that the volunteers would among others, conduct door to door visit to mobilise households with children under five while helping identify children who would possible miss the vaccine and notify healthcare givers.
“Each volunteer will be expected to reach 150 households over a period of three days before the campaign starts. We will therefore through our volunteer base reach over 60,000 households across Ghana, especially hard to reach areas,” he added.
He mentioned that the efforts of GRCS and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) to maintain the focus that governments must have to ensure that all immunolabel diseases were not left behind from the current efforts to minimise populations against COVID-19 were core.
Parents and guardians, he said must endeavour to make their children available for the polio vaccination which he described as very crucial.
Country coordinator of the Swiss Red Cross, Mr Walter Beries, in his submission underscored the relevance of ensuring every child under five years was not left behind during the vaccination exercise.
He stated that persons affected by polio usually had some sort of difficult life, depending on the severity, adding that it was very necessary for the world to continue to join efforts together in ensuring polio was totally eradicated from every part of the world.
BY RAISSA SAMBOU
