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The US Embassy in Ghana has issued health alert warning travelers of a polio outbreak in the West African country.
“All travelers to Ghana should be vaccinated fully against polio. Before traveling to Ghana, adults who completed their routine polio vaccine series as children should receive a single, lifetime adult booster dose of polio vaccine,” the alert added.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also added: “Travelers who will be in Ghana for more than 4 weeks may need an additional booster if they received their most recent dose of polio vaccine (completion of routine series or adult booster) more than 12 months before their date of departure from Ghana.”
An outbreak of polio was confirmed in Ghana’s Northern region town of Chereponi 10 years after the West African nation was declared free of the disease.
It was detected in a two-year-old girl who was on admission at the Chereponi District Hospital in July.
“The Ministry of Health/Ghana Health Service has received report of confirmed Poliomyelitis from the National Polio Laboratory, in the sample from a two (2)-year eight (8) month old girl with Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) from Andonyama in Chereponi sub-district of Chereponi district in the Northern Region. The child was seen at Chereponi District Hospital on July 27 with sudden onset of weakness in both lower limbs. Stool samples were taken as part of routine polio surveillance on 27th July, 2019 and sent to the National Polio Laboratory at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research for laboratory investigations and the sample tested positive as per result received on 17th August, 2019,” a statement from the health service said.
Among other things, the Ghana Health Service said a team has been deployed to assist the regional and district teams to carry out a detailed investigation.
Source: Daily Mail GH
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