Minister of Health inspects polio immunisation exercise
Madam Sherry Ayitey, Minister of Health, has inspected the ongoing three-day polio immunisation programme that commenced on Thursday in the Shai Osudoku District, in Accra.
The programme is to create the awareness of the need for children to be immunised against polio- a deadly disease found in children and pregnant women across.
She said since the inception of the immunisation programme in 1996 had helped to reduce polio, but recent developments in neighbouring countries indicate that much more needs to be done to sustain the success.
Madam Ayitey referred to recent outbreaks in Niger and Nigeria and said there is the need for the national exercise to ensure that children are free from the disease.
“It is the right of everybody to have medical care and not a privilege, and government is working hard to ensure that every individual gains quality medical care,” she said.
She said government is in the process of establishing district hospitals which would consist of theatres, modern equipment, good laboratory, ambulances and trained community health nurses.
She urged community health nurses in the districts and communities to educate women about the disease so that they seek immediate medical attention when children experience any slight paralysis in their nerves.
Dr Kwawdo Odei Antwi-Agyei, Programmes Manager Ghana Health Service Disease Control Unit, said poliomyelitis affects mainly children under five years of age, and one in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, of which five to 10 per cent die when their breathing muscles become immobilised.
He said polio cases have decreased by more than 99 per cent since 1988, from an estimated 350,000 cases, to 233 reported cases in 2012.
He said the reduction is the result of the global effort to eradicate the disease.
Dr Antwi-Agyei said in Ghana, a total of 58 polio cases were isolated since 1996 and that the last polio outbreak was recorded in 2008.
He noted that in the first round of the 2013 campaign, about 45,000 volunteers and 4,500 supervisors have been trained to move from house to house to vaccinate children below five years.
Dr Antwi-Agyei said the team would also go to schools, market places and lorry parks as well as barriers and border posts to ensure that children less than five years are all vaccinated.
“About 5.4 million children zero to five years were targeted for the vaccination whereas children between six months to five years would have Vitamin A administered as well”.
Dr Afua Asante, District Director of Heath Service said the area, which was formerly part of Dangbe West, has a total population of 57,108 of which 48 per cent are male and 52 per cent female.
She said the district is made up of scatted communities making geographical access to health care very difficult, saying this poses serious health implications on the district.
Dr Asante noted that malaria, anaemia, still delivery and shistosomiasis are the major disease affecting the districts.
She said currently there are only 83 community health nurses in the district and appealed to the Ghana Health Service to provide more staff.
Source: GNA