The Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, and their partners from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have launched the 2024 National Oral Polio Vaccine Type 2 (NOPV2) vaccination campaign in Koforidua under the theme, “Kick Polio Out of Ghana,” as the country continues to face the threat of polio transmission despite previous eradication efforts.

The campaign aims to vaccinate over six million children under five years old across the country.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye, underscored the importance of boosting population immunity to prevent the spread of poliovirus type 2, especially following recent environmental detections of the virus in Koforidua.

“The two rounds of the polio campaign, which we are launching today, are an essential part of the country’s broader strategy to close the immunity gaps that allow poliovirus to persist,” he said

The first round of vaccinations will take place from October 17 to 20, 2024, and the second round will follow from November 14 to 17, 2024.

Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye explained that polio remains a real threat, citing the discovery of a circulating variant of type 2 poliovirus in September 2024 at the Koforidua Environmental Surveillance site, which is genetically linked to a strain found in Algeria.

“This clearly indicates that one polio anywhere is indeed polio everywhere,” he noted.

He urged for a collective effort to stop the virus at its source through vaccination, enhanced surveillance, and education.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, reinforced the government’s commitment to safeguarding the health of Ghanaian children, noting that the government under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo continues to prioritize immunization programs to protect the most vulnerable.

“Today’s launch further affirms our unyielding commitment to safeguarding the future of every Ghanaian child,” he said, adding that the new nOPV2 is a safer and more effective tool in preventing the spread of the virus.

Dr. Frank Lule, from the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office in Accra, also stressed the need for sustained efforts to maintain the progress made in the fight against polio, calling for effective vaccination campaigns to keep the virus at bay.

As part of the launch, some children were orally vaccinated as a symbolic gesture to kick off the national campaign.

A float was also held on the streets of Koforidua to create awareness.

According to the World Health Organization, (WHO), Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age.

The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g. contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.

In 1988, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution for the worldwide eradication of polio, marking the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Wild poliovirus cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from 350,000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries to 6 reported cases in 2021.

WHO states that of the 3 strains of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2 and type 3), wild poliovirus type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and wild poliovirus type 3 was eradicated in 2020. As of 2022, endemic wild poliovirus type 1 remains in two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.