The Northern Regional Health Directorate has launched a polio vaccination campaign after detecting cases at Kobilimagu in the Tamale Metro and Nyanshegu in the Sagnarigu Municipality.
The Regional Deputy Public Health, Dr Hilarious Abiwu, announced this at a media briefing in Tamale on Wednesday.
He said their research at Kobilimagu and Nyanshegu identified the polio viruses in drains in these two communities, hence the need for the immunisation exercise to protect children under five.
Dr Abiwu explained the regional health directorate wanted to be sure of the virus detention, so they took samples of the drains to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for testing and the results came out positive.
He has, therefore, encouraged parents to cooperate with the health officials who will be visiting their homes to get their kids vaccinated against the virus.
He indicated that from Thursday to Sunday, the directorate will dispatch their teams through the entire region to look for all children under five years and vaccinate them against the virus.
He further added that the region is lucky its not recorded any polio case yet unlike the Savannah region, therefore, parents should take their children’s vaccination very serious to be able to fight the virus.
“We are going to dispatch our teams through the entire region to look for all children under five and vaccinate them against polio. Once we are successful in this round, four weeks later, precisely on the 6th of October all this being equal our teams will return again to our various homes to look for these children again and give them a second dose.
“The vaccine is safe and any child that is exposed to it will be protected against any dangerous effects of polio,” he assured.