No polio threat in Ghana — GHS assures
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has assured the public that the outbreak of wild polio in Cameroun, Syria and Pakistan does not pose a threat to the country’s efforts to end the spread of polio.
The Deputy Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Mr John Frederick Dadzie, who gave the assurance, explained that the country’s routine immunisation programme was robust and had been further strengthened to the extent that it had not recorded any case of polio since 2008.
He said monitoring activities at the various health centres and communities in the country were also very good as a result, any child below 15 years who reported with a sudden onset of paralysis was immediately tested to check whether it was polio so that the necessary action could be taken.
“Staff and community volunteers have also been trained to report any suspected case of polio to the district health directorate for action to be taken,” he added.
Mr Dadzie, who gave the assurance in an interview with the Junior Graphic, was responding to a recent report by the BBC that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared the spread of polio as an international public health emergency.
Making reference to the recent outbreak of new cases of wild polio in Pakistan, Cameroun and Syria, the report, published in May, said the three countries “pose the greatest risk of further wild polio virus exportations in 2014”.
It, therefore, recommended that citizens of the affected countries travelling abroad should carry a vaccination certificate.
Wild polio refers to a situation where transmission of polio in that country is not imported from another country.
Previously, four countries in the world, namely Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria, had wild polio, but, according to Mr Dadzie, last year India was able to break its transmission.
“Though the new outbreak was a threat to the global efforts to eradicate polio by the end of 2020, it really is not a threat to Ghana,” he assured.
Mr Dadzie said the GHS intended to strengthen its community and routine immunisation programmes.
