Ghana Launches Second Round of Polio Vaccine

Ghana's second round of the National Immunisation Days began Friday, with health workers stopping at every house in their path to vaccinate the vulnerable ones.

The three-day exercise, being undertaken on a house-to-house basis, is aimed at reaching the over four million under-five children who will also be given vitamin A capsules.

The vitamin A supplementary exercise forms part of Ghana's effort to address nutrition-related illnesses and death among this vulnerable population.

If children who have enough vitamin A are immunised against severe forms of diseases such as measles and diarrhoea, their chances of survival dramatically increase.

The World Health Organisation is leading efforts in the final onslaught against the highly infectious polio, which has been targeted for eradication through out the world by 2005.

Seventeen West and Central African countries are also carrying out a similar house-to-house exercise in response to the global initiative against polio.