The first round of the campaign starts today to end on September 4, with the second round also starting from October 6 to 9, targeting 387,631 children at the close of the campaign.

The Acting Volta Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Senanu Kwesi Dzokoto, announced this at a media launch and stakeholders’ engagement meeting in Ho yesterday on the novel oral polio vaccination exercise.

He said all the necessary preparations and interventions had been put in place to make the exercise in the 18 districts in the Volta Region a success.

According to him, 10 out of 16 regions recorded at least a polio case between 2019- 2022.

He said even though some progress had been made over the years in eradicating of polio, it was still not the ideal situation.

Dr Dzokoto noted that one of the key elements of eradicating polio was a clean environment, and therefore “the education of making sure our surroundings are clean should be encouraged.”

He also called on the public to know that the polio vaccines save lives and there should be no fears.

Dr Dzokoto further advised that polio virus outbreak resulted when there was low vaccination coverage, and therefore advised parents to bring out their children from 0-5 years to be vaccinated.

He assured that the objective of the exercise was to wage “a holy war on polio” so that by the end of the campaign it would be eradicated.

The regional director, therefore, called on the district assemblies, traditional authorities, churches and other stakeholders to continue with the education so that by the end of the exercise a greater number of children would be vaccinated.

Togbe Kwaku Ayim IV, Paramount Chief of Ziavi Traditional Area, who chaired the function thanked the Health Directorate for its continuous health education over the years and assured that they would go back to their communities to spread the message.

He said if all the children should go through the exercise their health needs would be improved.