Ministry intensifies efforts to meet deadline for polio eradication.

Accra, April 12, GNA - The Ministry of Health is to spend over one billion cedis for a sub National Immunisation Days (NIDs) polio exercise in 39 districts.

The exercise, to be undertaken in all the 10 regions, is scheduled for May/June as part of a final effort to meet the 2000- year deadline for polio eradication. Mr Andy Bortey, National Co-ordinator of the NIDs programme, told the GNA in an interview on Wednesday that funding for polio eradication stops at the end of the year after which international bodies would review the national data.

Data prepared from various exercises would be certified before Ghana can be certified as a polio free country. The exercise, described as "mopping up", would involve an intensive house to house immunisation and is a follow up to the recent NIDs held early this year.

It is also part of the national programme to implement an action-oriented surveillance for all polio cases. Under the programme, 10 districts in the Northern Region would be covered, three in the Western Region, six in the Eastern Region, one in the Upper East and two in the Upper West region.

Three districts would be covered in Central region, two in Greater Accra, six in Ashanti, five in Volta and two in the Brong Ahafo regions. Additional money will be needed to buy 80,000 vials of vaccines expected to cover the targeted districts since the 1.2 billion cedis is to be used only for operational cost which will include social mobilisation, personnel cost and transportation.

Mr Bortey said the criteria for choosing the districts include areas where the wild polio virus has been isolated for the past three years, areas bordering neighbouring countries and areas with low coverage of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation.

He said it was important that children living in districts bordering neighbouring countries are covered because it was likely that some children who are not protected may travel outside the country and contact the disease or may contract the disease from foreigners who come into the country.

Another national exercise to immunise children aged five and below will be carried out in November/December as a final effort at total eradication of polio. Polio, an infectious disease, not only cripples children but can result in death.