The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, has assured the nation that steps are being taken for the country to take delivery of children’s vaccines in three weeks’ time.
According to Mr Manu, by the end of the next three weeks, a country-wide assessment of several pediatric immunisations will be activated to help address the issue of immunisations in the country against some of the childhood killer diseases.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament Thursday, March 9, 2023, the sector minister told the House that the cedi’s depreciation in the final quarter of 2022 was the cause of the ministry’s inability to pay for the vaccines ahead of time.
He said the present vaccination scarcity in Ghana was widespread and promised to take urgent steps to quickly obtain the vaccines for immunisations.
Meanwhile, the Minister has also refuted claims that there have been recorded deaths amongst children from measles as a result of the shortage of vaccines in the country.
“It is important to correct the erroneous impression that there have been deaths from Measles in Ghana recently. For the avoidance of doubt, there have been no deaths from the recently recorded spike in Measles cases,” he said.
The Minister stressed: “Indeed there have been no deaths since 2003 though we have recorded cases annually.”
According to the Health Minister, despite the shortage of vaccines in the country, Ghana still holds an unbeatable record of being one of the best when it comes to immunisation performance.