Health officials are ramping up polio vaccination efforts in northern Ghana after a case was detected in the Savannah Region.
The virus has also been detected during surveillance in the Northern Region.
“What it means is that if we have these children also in our environment, who are not vaccinated, it won’t be long before we will also record a case,” the Deputy Director in Charge of Public Health at the Northern Regional Health Directorate, Hilarious Abiwu said.
The strain of polio detected is a new one called the Poliovirus type 1.
The virus was detected during routine surveillance carried out by the health directorate after samples of water collected in some drains in the Tamale metropolis and the Sagnerigu Municipality were taken to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research for testing.
Mr. Abiwu noted that an outbreak investigation conducted in the communities showed that over 40 protected children were carrying the virus.
The directorate will begin vaccinating children under five between Thursday and Sunday.
The vaccinated children will be given a second dose of the polio vaccine in four weeks.
“The idea is that the more doses of the vaccine one receive, the stronger the child’s immunity against polio,” Mr. Abiwu said.
In the North East Region, a total of 121,000 children under five are expected to be vaccinated against the disease.
The vaccination drive will also start on Thursday.
The exercise which starts tomorrow to the 4th of September in all the districts in the region, the regional health director Dr Abdulai Bukari has urged parents to collaborate with the team to vaccinate all children under five.
He said a total of 231 vaccinators have been recruited to help in the exercise.