The African Vaccination and Child Health Promotion week, 2024, was on Tuesday launched in Accra with an appeal to parents to ensure that children up to two years old received the right dosses of vaccines required to protect them against Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD).
Mr. Naziru Tanko Mohammed, the Deputy Program Manager of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), Ghana Health Service (GHS), said presently, there were inequalities in vaccination coverage with high numbers of left-out children in peri-urban and urban districts.
He said in urban districts like Ga Central, Ablekuma, Oforikrom, Kwabrim, Prampram among others, parents hardly completed the vaccination schedules for their children.
“If you received only one dose of a vaccine which is to be administered in four doses, your child will still be at risk,” he said, encouraging such parents to ensure their children completed the process.
Mr. Mohammed said Ghana currently administered eleven vaccines against 14 VPDs in routine immunization and that the EPI was considering establishing mobile vaccination centres in markets and public places to reach out to more children in urban centres.
The Chief of Staff, Mrs. Akosua Frema Osei Opare, who launched the childhood vaccination week, said from the moment of birth, vaccines played a critical role in safeguarding the survival of newborns and infants.
Through the routine immunization schedule, Ghana provides protection against diseases such as Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Measles, Polio, Meningitis, Yellow Fever, Tetanus, among others.
Mrs. Opare said vaccination ensured that the youngest and most vulnerable population was shielded from dangerous diseases.
“Early vaccinations lay the foundation for a lifetime of health and well-being, setting the stage for future growth and development of a child,” she said.
She called on the public to support the national vaccination efforts saying, “vaccination is not just an individual responsibility…it is a collective endeavor that benefits society. By achieving high vaccination coverage across all age groups, we create a herd immunity.”
The Chief of Staff said the concept of herd immunity underscored the importance of investing in immunization to save lives and prevent outbreaks and that every family, group, and organisation had a stake in immunization and other child health interventions.
Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), reaffirmed the government’s commitment to prioritising the well-being of children in all aspects of its work and advocacy.
That, he said, would be done by investing in effective interventions, collaborating across sectors, and advocating policies that prioritised child health.
“We can create a country where every child can grow up healthy, happy, and thriving,” he said.
The African Vaccination Week is celebrated in April every year to strengthen immunization programmes in Africa.
It seeks to increase the awareness of the importance that every person’s (particularly every child and woman) has the right to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.
It also aims at keeping immunization high on the national and regional agendas through advocacy and partnerships, with an over-arching slogan “Vaccinated communities, Healthy communities”.
This year’s campaign is under the theme “Healthy Childhood: Invest in Your Child for a Better Future”.
