Extra doses of polio vaccine not harmful - Expert

Accra, Feb. 23, GNA - National Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on

Immunisation, on Tuesday assured Ghanaians that extra doses of the polio vaccines were not

injurious to children.

On the contrary, Mr Kwadwo Antwi Agyei said, it was beneficial and a known scientific fact that children in developing countries like Ghana required 10-15 doses of the vaccine in order to develop full immunity. He was speaking at a ceremony, organised by Rotary International to present a grant for polio immunization to UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO). Mr. Agyei said this measure had become necessary in an environment o= f poor sanitation, where entero-viruses competed with the polioviruses for attachment to sites in the intestines and it called

for necessary response.

A cheque for 150,000 dollars went to UNICEF for socio-mobilsation an= d while a million dollars

went to WHO to help in the eradication of polio in the country and get Gh= ana certified as a polio-

free Country. This year's National Immunization Days (NIDs) programme would, as usual, be synchronized

across West Africa to ensure that all children in the sub-region are covered. Strategies for polio eradication, Mr. Agyei said, were strong routin= e immunization programme,

NIDs, acute flaccid paralysis surveillance and "mopping-up" immunization and noted that this had

yielded fruitful results. He said that polio cases in West Africa were going down but there wa= s the need to consolidate

the gains. Ghana had no wild poliovirus from September 2003 till in August 200= 8 when eight cases of wild

polio were detected in the Northern Region but these were quickly contain= ed. Since then there has

been no recorded case. Mr. Agyei said that as at February 20, 2010, Nigeria, one of the endemic countries, had reported

only one case of wild polio virus compared to 21 at the same period last year. Mr Sam Okudzeto, a Trustee of Rotary, said Rotary International, whi= ch was established exactly

105 years ago on February 23, 1905 in Chicago, had now encompassed over 2= 00 countries with a

membership of over 1.2 million Rotarians. He said its humanitarian goals were now encapsulated in the future vision plan with six areas of

focus which are basic education and literacy, disease prevention and treatment, economic and

community development, material and child health, peace and conflict resolution and water and

sanitation. Mr. Okudzeto said since 1985 when the polio plus programme began mor= e than two billion

children had received oral polio vaccine and to date, 210 countries, territories and areas around the

world were polio free and 134 of these had been certified. Rotarians have ensured that surveillance of the disease was strong despite the poor

infrastructure, extreme poverty and civil strife of many countries. Rotary has contributed to WHO Africa Regional Office as at January t= his year US$146,566.460. The purpose of the grant is to ensure the synchronized immunization for 12 countries of West Africa which are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote Devoir, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sierra Leon and Togo.

Extolling the virtues of Rotary, Mr Winfred Mensah, Chairman of the Ghana National Polioplus

Committee of Rotary International, said the group has invested more than USD 850 million in the campaign, out of which US$4.9 million had supported Ghana's NID efforts.

He noted that 122 countries had benefited from Rotary in terms of provision of the polio vaccine, operational support, medical personnel laboratory equipments and educatio= nal materials for health workers and parents during the NIDs in their respective countries. The pioneering effort of Rotary to eliminate polio has attracted individuals and many

organizations to commit the noble challenge. In November 2007, a new partnership was forged between Rotary International and the Bill &

Melinda Gates Foundation granted it US$100 million, which Rotary committed to match by raising $100 million over three years towards polio eradication in the world. In January 2009, Bill Gates announced an additional new grant of US$= 255 million to Rotary International in the global effort to eradicate polio bringing the total Gate Foundation to US$355 million.

UNICEF Country Representative Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, commended Rotary= for its commitment to eradicate polio and shape the future of the world future leaders. Dr. Daniel Kertesz, WHO country representative, said the remarkable progress made to get rid of polio in Ghana and throughout the world, would not have been possible without the vision and support of development partners like Rotary International.

"Together we can; we will get rid of polio in Africa. An Africa with= out polio will be our gift to our

children, their children and all future generations," he said. PolioPlus, the most ambitious program in Rotary's history, is the volunteer arm of the global

partnership dedicated to eradicating polio. For more than 20 years, Rotary has led the private sector in the glo= bal effort to rid the world of

this crippling disease. Today, PolioPlus and its role in the initiative are recognized worldwide as a model of public-

private cooperation in pursuit of a humanitarian goal. 23 Feb. 10