380,000 children to be vaccinated against polio in Volta region

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is set to carry out an immunization exercise against polio infection for children in some eight regions across the country including the Volta region.

The vaccination is expected to be carried out in all the eighteen districts in the region and will be organize from Thursday, September 10 to Sunday, 13 September 2020, being first round and the second round on Tuesday, 8 to Sunday 11, October 2020.

According to the Deputy Volta Regional Director in charge of public health, Dr. Senanu Dzokoto, although there is a zero case of the polio virus in the region, the vaccination is important and must reach every child in the region between the ages of 0-5.

He indicated that some three hundred and eighty thousand children representing twenty percent of the region’s population will be vaccinated.

“Volta has not recorded any case yet, but we are deemed highly because there are areas with low immunization coverages. We have areas which do not have the most ideal of sanitary condition,all our neighboring regions have recorded cases, Oti region has recorded two, we’ve cases in the Greater Accra region as well, so if therefore if we do not take the step to protect the people of Volta region it can happen that, Volta region will also begin recording cases of polio. Across the country, 4.5 million children will receive this dosage and in the Volta region 380,000 will receive this dosage."

Dr. Dzokoto noted this on Sunday, 6 September 2020 at a press briefing on the exercise in Ho, where he also appealed to parents and guardians to welcome the exercise to discourage the polio infection in the region and Ghana at large.

The Volta Regional Disease Control Officer, Anthony Mawuli Pani made it known that, phase one and two of the immunization was carried out in some eight regions in the country before the outbreak of the COVID-19, hence the phase three will be carried out in the remaining eight regions which are; Volta region, Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, Upper West, Western and the Western North region.

The exercise amidst COVID-19

Dr. Senanu Dzokoto indicated that, the GHS and Health Ministry have put in place the necessary measurements to enable the vaccinators carry out the exercise in a safety manner against the novel coronavirus.

“ In order to prevent the direct and indirect health effects of the COVID-19, the health service has adapted measures to ensure that all health personnel render all routine services in an absolutely safe environment. The teams that will go round to vaccinate all the children will adhere strictly to the COVID-19 safety protocols and measures are actually put in place, they’ve received all the logistics that require for all the teams that we are going to deploy across the region” adding that “ each team member will be provided with face mask and alcohol based hand sanitizers to clean their hands before and after vaccinating each child,” he said.

He also revealed that, active cases of the coronavirus in the region remained extremely low in the past eight weeks adding that at present there are eight active cases in the Volta Region, "so most of our districts actually do not have any active case of COVID-19”

The exercise will also be organized at public gatherings, such as churches, festivals among other social gatherings aside the door to door vaccination.