Ghanaian children eligible for polio vaccination will from this year receive the inactivated polio shot instead of the oral polio vaccine.
The inactivated polio vaccine is administered through injection.
The Director of Public Health of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Badu Sarkodie who said this in an interview at the just ended Ministerial Conference on Immunisation held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, explained that the inactivated polio vaccine had proven to have some advantages over the oral polio vaccine.
“The protection offered by the inactivated polio vaccine is higher and quicker and also lasts longer,” he said.
In addition, he said the vaccine had minimal adverse effects.
Routine Immunisation
The Manager of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), Dr George Bonsu, who also attended the conference, said the inactivated polio shot would be given as part for routine immunisation.
The initial funding of the new polio vaccine would be provided by Gavi, the vaccine alliance, he said, adding that Ghana would take over the funding in due course.
Dr Bonsu indicated that changing the administration of polio vaccines from oral to injection would not pose any logistics challenge.
He said the country already had in place an efficient system of administering injectable vaccines of childhood killer diseases such as measles.
MenAfriVac for children
In a related development, the country also will roll out vaccination of children under one year against Meningitis A this year, using the MenAfriVac, a meningococcal group A conjugate vaccine developed for the countries in the African Meningitis belt to control epidemics.
This follows the successful trial of the vaccine in children carried out in Ghana by the Navrongo Health Research Centre in 2008 to 2012 and in Mali.
The lead researcher, Dr Abraham Hogson, told the Daily Graphic that the vaccine was found to be effective and safe in children under one year during the trial.
“The next step is to add it to the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) vaccines so that children attending the EPI clinics would receive the vaccination and be protected,” he said
Dr Hogson stated that Ghana would be one of the first countries in the belt to administer the MenAfrVac to children under one year.
“It is hoped that with the roll-out of the vaccine into the EPI, all children being born would receive the vaccine and be protected,” he added.
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