West Africa: Anti-polio drive begins

  1. Posted on Thursday 12 February 2009 - 13:28
    Dolphyne
    Image of Dolphyne
    Joseph Appiah-Dolphyne, AfricaNews editor in Accra, Ghana
    Countries in West Africa will in the next three days begin a drive in a move to eradicate polio. In all, about twenty million children are expected to be vaccinated during this period. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers have been mobilised in eight countries to help administer the oral vaccine.
    polio
    The United Nations Children's Fund is working with the various health ministries to try to rid Africa of the highly contagious and incurable virus. It spreads easily in densely populated countries with poor sanitation, according to a BBC report.

    Rumours

    Great strides have been made in the fight against polo in recent years, but the virus which causes paralysis has not been eradicated in West Africa partly because previous efforts at vaccination have been met with suspicion by some religious leaders in Nigeria.

    The battle against polio received a major set-back in 2003 when a vaccination programme in northern Nigeria had to be abandoned after rumours spread that the polio vaccine caused Aids and was part of a western plot to sterilise Muslim girls.

    As a result the virus then spread and re-infected 23 countries which had earlier been declared polio free.

    Ghana had recorded no new cases of polio for five years until just a few months ago when eight cases were identified - the children between the ages and one and four were all paralysed.

    The ongoing effort to eradicate polio is not cheap - in Ghana alone $2.5m (£1.7m) will be spent over the next three days.

Latest News

  1. OPINION: Welcome to African Green Revolution24/05For the past century and a half, Africa has tried various agricultural approaches without much success.
  2. Egyptians vote in historic election23/05Egyptians began voting freely on Wednesday for the first time to pick their president in a wide open election that pits Islamists against men who serv…
  3. Africa Day 2012 - a moment for reflection and…22/0525th May is Africa Day. For many years it has been a celebration of African unity. It dates back to 1963 when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) …
  4. South Africa's African agenda21/05The Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Kgalema Mothlanthe paid a rare visit to Ghana in April at the invitation of John Dramani Mahama …
  5. Women struggle to rinse hunger, poverty stains21/05Just looking at her one clearly appreciates that she is old and frail therefore in need of support for food, clothing and shelter to live comfortably …
  6. Climate Climate change affects migratory birds…21/05Changes in the climate globally have affected the movement of both migratory and resident species of birds, Nature Uganda has said.
  7. Ghana: Foreign retailers cited for currency…18/05The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) is attributing the sharp depreciation of the Ghana cedi against major currencies to the illegal activiti…
  8. Kenya: Community radio brings succour to…18/05Korogocho, a slum in northeastern Nairobi with 100,000 inhabitants, had many of the ingredients for a political explosion similar to those that rocked…
  9. Veld fires 'flame' Zimbabwe's…16/05Over the years, Zimbabwe has experienced the scourge of veld fires destroying property worth thousands of dollars.
  10. Liberia commends ECOWAS for support14/05The induction training of pioneer Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Volunteers for Liberia kicked off in Monrovia, with the Deputy Mi…
  11. Vanishing Lake Chad puts 30m lives at risk14/05As you approach the Lake Chad basin from Maiduguri, in north-eastern Nigeria, the evidence of despair is telling.
  12. Heavy rains cause havoc in Kenya14/05Heavy Rainfall continued to wreak havoc across the country leading to the suspension of relief food in some parts of the country as most roads in Turk…
  13. Zimbabwe: Growth points lie dormant14/05The Zimbabwean government mooted the concept of growth points in the 1980s as a means of decongesting cities and towns.
  14. Sierra Leone improves in infant mortality11/05Sierra Leone has improved in infant mortality cases according to Save the Children- World Motherhood index 2012 report. The West Africa country descri…
  15. Zimbabwe: Resettled farmers fail to utilize…10/05Resettled farmers in Zimbabwe are failing to utilize land due to inadequate farming inputs and lack of resources.
News archive