Accra, March 2, GNA - The First Lady, Mrs Ernestina Naadu Mills on Tuesday said despite considerable strides chalked out by the polio eradication initiative in 1996, more needed to be done to make Ghana and the world polio-free. "The end of polio is at sight. Let's rekindle our spirits and effort= to deal with the final blow to polio," she said at the national launch of th= e Polio National Immunisation Days (NIDs) She said it was unacceptable to witness children in this modern era to be killed or incapacitated by polio and called on well meaning Ghanaians to support the cause of kicking out the disease.

Mrs Mills said Government remained committed to supporting the Ghana=

Health Service (GHS) in carrying out activities to achieve complete eradication. Polio is an acute viral disease that is easily spread from human-to-human contact through contaminated food or water and can kill or=

cripple children for life.

Government this year is printing the forms required for the two roun= ds of NIDs. All district assemblies are also supporting the NIDs in kind to ensure a successful vaccination exercise. Mrs Mills called on mothers and community leaders among others to ensure that all the five million targeted children were reached. Giving an overview of the polio situation in Ghana, the National Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation assured Ghanaians that extra doses of the polio vaccines were not injurious to children.

On the contrary, Mr Kwadwo Antwi Agyei said, it was beneficial and a=

known scientific fact that children in developing countries like Ghana required 10-15 doses of the vaccine in order to develop full immunity. Mr Agyei said this measure had become necessary in an environment of=

poor sanitation, where entero-viruses compete with the polioviruses for attachment to sites in the intestines and this called for necessary response. In response to the synchronised polio immunisation campaign in the W= est Africa sub-region this year, the first and second rounds of immunisation have be scheduled from March 5 - March 7 and April 25- April 27 to ensure=

that all children in the sub-region were covered.

Strategies for polio eradication, Mr Agyei said, were a strong routi= ne immunisation programme, NIDs, acute flaccid paralysis surveillance and "mopping-up" immunisation, adding this had yielded fruitful results. He said polio cases in West Africa were going down but there was the=

need to consolidate the gains.

Ghana had had no wild poliovirus from September 2003 till August 200= 8 when eight cases of wild polio were detected in the Northern Region. The cases were quickly contained and since then there has been no recorded case. Mr Agyei said as at February 20, Nigeria, one of the endemic countri= es, had reported only one case of wild polio virus compared to 21 at the same=

period last year.

Mr Winfred Mensah, Chairman of the Ghana National Polio Plus Committ= ee of Rotary International, said the group had invested more than $850 milli= on in the campaign, out of which $4.9 million had supported Ghana's NID efforts. The pioneering effort of Rotary to eliminate polio has attracted individuals and many organisations to commit to the noble challenge. A new partnership was forged between Rotary International and the Bi= ll & Melinda Gates Foundation which granted it $100 million.

He asked Ghanaians to text Polio to 1962 at the cost of GH¢1.00 on= all mobile phone networks to help Rotary raise GH¢5 million to kick polio o= ut of Ghana. Dr Daniel Kertesz, World Health Organisation country Representative,=

said the remarkable progress made to get rid of polio in Ghana and throughout the world, would not have been possible without the vision and=

support of development partners like Rotary International.

"Together we can; we will get rid of polio in Africa. An Africa with= out polio will be our gift to our children, their children and all future generations," he said. He called on all political and religious leaders, local chiefs and administrators, opinion leaders and educators, health authorities, vaccinators and parents to assume responsibility for the success of the vaccination campaign. Deputy Health Minister, Mr Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, said no child should b= e left out in the vaccination because it was their birthright and they shou= ld not be denied access to vaccines.