Ghana Health Service receives Polio vaccines

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed receipt of Polio vaccines.

The National Programs Manager for Immunization at the Ghana Health Service Dr. George Bonsu, who received the consignment, said the consignment is enough to cover all 10 regions for the next six months but the GHS is ready to disburse ‘three months’ stock’ across the country.

“We took delivery of the polio vaccines into the national cold room yesterday around 11:40 pm,” Dr. Bonsu told Accra-based Citi FM.

“And we’ve actually made provisions to send them to the regions.”

Thousands of babies born in Ghana in the past few weeks were at risk of contracting poliomyelitis, one of the six killer diseases.

The highly-contagious disease which is caused by a virus that attacks the nervous system and affects children, particularly those younger than five years, poses a great threat to the country’s efforts at maintaining its status of polio-free since 2008.

Governments’ inability to procure the vaccine on time to restock hospitals that need the vaccine, which has been very successful in combating polio to protect children from the disease, caused shortages in supply of the vaccines country wide two weeks ago but distribution of the vaccine is expected to commence, Wednesday August 2, 2017.