Parents urged to patronise Oral Polio Vaccination exercise

Kofi Asemanyi-Mensah, the Deputy Western Regional Public Health Director, has appealed to parents to patronize the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) exercise scheduled for September 10 to 13, 2020.

He called on the parents to allow their children to receive the vaccine and to shun the notion that the vaccine was contaminated and dangerous to their children's health.

Mr Asemanyi-Mensah, who made the call during a press briefing to announce the scheduled dates for the vaccination exercise, said the vaccines had passed through rigorous processes and was approved by the Food and Drugs Authority.

"The Ministry of Health and Leaders of this Country are not that wicked to give out dangerous medication to citizens, especially children," he said.

He said the immunization was for children from birth to under five years and would run from September 10 to 13 for Round One and October 8 to 11 for Round Two.

The Deputy Regional Public Health Director said a total of 442,932 infants in the 14 districts of the region were expected to be immunized.

Mr Asemanyi-Mensah said Ghana recorded three events of non-wild poliovirus outbreak in July and August 2019.

He said nine out of the 16 regions have so far recorded 30 cases, hence the need for the supplementary immunization campaign (mOPV2) to vaccinate children against the poliovirus to contain the spread of the virus to other parts of the country.

The Deputy Director stated that the polio vaccination was to raise the population’s immunity against poliovirus and break the transmission of non-wild poliovirus, strengthen surveillance on polio disease and prevent further polio outbreak.

Mr Asemanyi-Mensah said the oral Polio Vaccine(OPV) was extremely safe and effective at protecting children against lifelong polio paralysis.

He urged the people to desist from seeking answers, especially on health-related issues from the internet, but to seek answers at the appropriate offices.

Mr Asemanyi-Mensah said the volunteers would visit homes, churches, mosques and markets to administer the vaccine in line with the COVID-19 safety protocols.

He said the COVID-19 protocols would be observed and the volunteers would be equipped with the appropriate gear.