Dr. Alex Bapula, the Wa Municipal Director of Health Services, has urged mothers, guardians, and caregivers to avail their children under 5 years (0-59 months) for the Novel Oral Polio Vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) scheduled for September 1-4, 2022.
He said the vaccine was safe and effective at protecting children against lifelong polio paralysis hence the need to get all the children in the region vaccinated against the virus.
Dr. Bapula said this in Wa on Thursday during an engagement with selected radio stations in the Wa Municipality on the Novel Oral Polio Vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) campaign which commenced in the municipality today, September 1, 2022.
He said the immunization exercise had become very necessary following the detection of the poliovirus in some parts of the country including the Northern Region, Savannah region, and the Ashanti region hence the need to build the immunity of children 0-59 months for them to be able to resist the poliovirus.
“We are appealing to every caregiver, every mother to avail their children for our volunteers to come around to dose or to vaccinate them.
“Polio is a condition that we shouldn’t allow our children to contract because these children are our future and we need to protect them”, he said.
Dr. Bapula explained that the vaccines are very safe and do not have any evidence of side effects but added that parents should report any side effects to the health facility for the necessary action to be taken.
He urged the mothers, guardians, and caregivers to take advantage of the vaccination exercise to get their children protected against the poliovirus.
“The immunization teams would move from house to house to immunize all children from birth to five years against polio”, he said.
He cautioned that polio paralyzes children for life and could also lead to death and stressed the need for all children within the target group to get vaccinated.
He said the first round of the immunization would take place from 1st – 4th September 2022 while the second round would be from 6th – 9th October 2022.