The Wa Municipal Health Directorate has exceeded the target for the first round of the Novel Oral Polio Vaccine Type Two (nOPV2) vaccination conducted from September 1 – 4, 2022.
The Directorate vaccinated a total of 49,191, about 20 per cent more than the expected target of 40,977 children within the 0-59 months category for the exercise.
Dr Alex Bapula, the Wa Municipal Director of Health Services, who revealed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Wa, credited the success chalked to the dedication of the vaccination teams and stakeholders, as well as the caregivers for their acceptance.
“This simply means that all the children in the Wa area have been given the polio vaccine, and if we are able to do that for the second round, we can say they are now protected against any form of polio,” he said.
The Lot Quality Assurance Sampling Surveys for the region showed that the Wa, Lawra, Jirapa, and Nandom municipalities, Wa East, Sissala West, Lambussie, and Nadowli-Kaleo districts passed the first round of the exercise while the Sissala East Municipality, Wa West and Daffiama-Bussie-Issa districts failed.
Dr Bapula said if a population was fully immunised it would be protected against all forms of polioviruses, and urged caregivers as well as stakeholders to participate fully in the second round, scheduled for October 6 -9, 2022.
He explained that the vaccination teams would visit households, churches, mosques, market centres, and lorry stations among other areas to vaccinate eligible children.
He stressed the need to get all the children protected against the polio virus as it “paralyses children for life and can even kill them.”
Dr Bapula allayed the fears of caregivers about the side effects of the polio vaccine and said it was safe with no evidence of adverse effects on the child.
