By Muniratu Akweley Issah
Accra, Nov. 22, GNA – The second round of polio vaccination exercise at Osu in the Greater Accra Region is going on smoothly, despite denials from some private schools.
Most houses the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited within the Osu community, in Korley Klottey Municipality were seen cooperating with the vaccination team on Day One of the exercise.
Ms Agnes Oboshie Akrong, Leader of the vaccination Team told the Ghana News Agency, that due to the awareness creation and home visitation most parents in the various households were familiar and cooperative enough.
She said: “I am impressed with the level of cooperation so far, we are able to administer the vaccines to every child with the consent of their parents, hence we were able to achieve our daily target of six vials around 2pm.”
She, however, expressed concern that some private schools were still denying children from taking the vaccines and called on the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to expedite action in addressing the situation.
Madam Rita Annang, a parent, said although school authorities were in denial, she personally went to the school and opted for the vaccination to be administered to her child.
According to Madam Annang, her actions would safeguard the health and safety of her child as well as prevent her from paralysis.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus.
When one is affected, the disease invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours.
The virus is transmitted from person-to-person and spreads mainly through contaminated water or food; it multiplies in the intestine.
Symptoms may include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck and pain in the limbs.
According to the WHO, one in 200 infections lead to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs and among those paralysed, five to 0 per cent of them die when their breathing muscles become immobilised.
Polio mainly affects children under five years of age. However, anyone of any age who is unvaccinated is at risk of contracting the disease.
Though there is no cure for polio, it can be prevented with multiple times vaccination to protect a child for life.
At the launching of the second round of the National Oral Polio Vaccine Type 2 (NOPV2) vaccination campaign in Accra, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, Director of Public, GHS, said the second round of the campaign would ensure that every child under five receives two oral doses of the vaccine for individual protection and health of the entire country.
He urged everyone to support the campaign, ensuring an end to the disease as it could affect everyone despite their status.
Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, Programme Manager, Expanded Programme on Immunisation, said despite the many achievements, access to some gated houses and communities, densely populated areas as well as private schools remained a challenge.
He urged the public to allow health workers to have access to their homes to enable them to vaccinate children under five to enhance the polio vaccination coverage.
“The challenge is that our team were unable to visit homes, which contributed to us missing over 1000 children during the first round of the national polio vaccination campaign,” he added.
The Programme Manager called on the media to help create more awareness to ensure that all children under five years were well captured and protected.
The campaign on the theme: “Help Kick Polio Out of Ghana”, seeks to protect children under five years old from polio by ensuring they receive the vaccine.
According to the WHO the polio virus continues to circulate in the country and the most effective way to ensure protection of children was to ensure that every child was vaccinated.
GNA