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GHS Begins Emergency Polio Vaccination

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Anthony Nsiah-Asare, vaccinating the first child in Greater Accra to kickstart the response vaccination against polio. The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has begun a two phased emergency polio immunization exercise in the Greater Accra and the Northern Regions.
The exercise which follows recent confirmations of polio cases in a two year old girl in the Chereponi district of the northern region and at Agbogbloshie, forms part of response activities to curb the further spread of the viral disease. It has been over 10 years since Ghana last recorded a polio case.
© Getty Images File Photo-UNICEF health consultant Hadiza Waya tries to immunise a child during vaccination campaign against polio
Director-General of the GHS, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, speaking at the launch of the campaign at Agbogbloshie Park in Accra, said the exercise in Accra area will last till September 14, 2019. He said the four day exercise will see teams of health workers and volunteers moving from house to house, schools, markets, lorry stations, churches, mosques to vaccinate eligible children (under five) adding that there will be no fixed posts at health facilities and other designated areas.
He said for the northern part of the country with the first phase is expected to commence from 25th to 28th September 2019 in all districts in the Northern, North East, Savanna, Upper East and Greater Accra regions. "Round two scheduled for 16-19 October this October this year will cover all districts in Northern, North East, Savanna and Upper East Regions," he said.
In the history of eradication campaigns, smallpox and rinderpest are the only two diseases to have been successfully eliminated around the world. While smallpox, a contagious disease, was eradicated in 1980, rinderpest, or ‘cattle plague,’ was wiped out in 2011. Here are some other diseases, like polio and rubella, that may be eradicated in the near future. 
Polio (poliomyelitis)
An infectious disease caused by the poliovirus, it most commonly affects children. Polio causes muscle weakness and can lead to irreversible paralysis in one in 200 cases. In one of the largest private-public partnership for health, World Health Organization (WHO) joined hands with Global Polio Eradication Initiative to reduce the disease by 99 percent, with the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia and Western Pacific certified polio-free regions. "We have teams of health workers and volunteers who will move from house to house, school to school, market to market, lorry station to lorry station, churches and mosques to vaccinate all eligible children under the ages of five years," he announced. Dr.Nsiah Asare therefore encouraged all parents and guardians to take their children born between 2016 and 2018 to health centers for vaccination. World Health Organization country representative, Dr.Owen Kaluwa said the vaccination presents an opportunity for children to be protected against polio and assured the support of the World Health Organization and other partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). "We are calling for the full support of all sectors, especially the media to create awareness and generate demand for the vaccination campaign," he said.
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