Vaccination against Polio Type Two begins in Accra Thursday, September 10th
All children below five years living in the City of Accra will be vaccinated against the poliovirus Type Two from Thursday, September 10th to 13th and Tuesday, October 8th to 11th 2020.
The exercise follows the detection of a positive case of poliovirus in environmental samples collected in Accra.
Head of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Health Directorate, Dr. Esi Therson-Cofie, who disclosed this on Tuesday at the Assembly’s management meeting said about 600 vaccinators and social mobilizers had been engaged to visit every home in the city to undertake the exercise to protect children from contracting infections and complications.
She explained that the vaccine which would be administered orally was safe adding that the benefits of the vaccination outweigh all the misconceptions.
“It is important that we go out to immunize the children to ensure that all children are well protected…The exercise will be done in phases, round one would come off from Thursday, September 10th to 13th while the round two takes off from Tuesday, October 8th to 11th 2020. This campaign is going to be mostly house to house due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Currently, the preschools are not in session and it is for this reason why the work is going to be done from house to house, ” she said.
She underscored the importance of the routine immunization and mass vaccination campaigns undertaken over the years adding that it had contributed to the eradication of many killer diseases such as whooping cough, measles among others.
” For more than 10 years now we have not had any child dying from measles in this country, or any incidence of whooping cough and these came about because of the continuous routine vaccinations that we have for the children…This upcoming immunisation is actually going to enable us to catch up with children who missed immunisation due to the COVID-19 restrictions as well, ” she said.
Dr Esi Therson-Cofie assured that vaccinators would observe all the COVID-19 protocols and urged parents to make their children available to be vaccinated.
She also appealed to all stakeholders, traditional, religious and community leaders, assembly members, as well as the media to support in sensitising the general public to ensure compliance during the exercise.
“We are seeking the support of our stakeholders in terms of getting the information out to the public, in terms of educating the public with the right information. We don’t want misconceptions to go round in the community. We want all community members to be made aware that the vaccine is safe and the vaccinators, the teams that are going around are also going to abide by the strict protocols of the prevention of the COVID – 19. We are going to adhere to all the protocols so there is no way that anyone will be transmitting any disease to any child, ” she said.