Ghana’s coverage for the first dose of Measles-containing vaccine has also been below 95 per cent for the past five years.

Dr. Fred Adomako-Boateng, the Ashanti Regional Director of Health Services, disclosed these as part of the justification for the Integrated Measles-Rubella Vaccination and Vitamin A Supplementation Campaign across the country.

Speaking at the media launch of the campaign in Kumasi, Dr. Adomako-Boateng underlined the need for all stakeholders to work towards reducing morbidity and mortality through vaccination.

The five-day exercise which seeks to increase population immunity against Measles and Rubella by 95 per cent by vaccinating 903,973 children across all the 43 districts in the region is on the theme, “Measles and Rubella Kill, Vaccinate Your Child for Good Life.”

Vaccination teams would be visiting schools, homes and public places to vaccinate children between the ages of nine-59 months (about 5 years) from October 2 to October 6.

Mothers can also take their children to vaccinating posts that would be set up in communities, health centres and hospitals.

The Regional Director further disclosed that the WHO/CDC Measles Risk Assessment Tool identified 50 districts as high-risk for measles outbreak.

“This accumulation of susceptible children creates a vulnerable population at risk of Measles and its severe consequences,” he pointed out.

According to him, as the number of unvaccinated children rises, the likelihood of outbreaks increases.

He gave a breakdown of confirmed Measles cases in the region for the last six years as 2018 -9, 2019 – 2, 2020 -1, 2021 -4, 2022 – 24, and 2023 -79.

He said no parent or guardian should miss the chance to vaccinate their children between the recommended age brackets during the campaign period to protect them from the diseases.

“As we stated, Measles and Rubella kill, the complications are something that you cannot really pay for, and you will never know who is going to be at risk,” Dr. Adomako-Boateng cautioned.

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The program will run from Wednesday, October 2, to Sunday, October 6, 2024.

This initiative is designed to protect children from measles and rubella while also offering essential vitamin A supplements to promote overall health.

Speaking at a press conference in the Upper East Region, Regional Director of Health Service, Dr. Samuel Boakye-Boateng, emphasized the significance of the campaign, citing recent measles outbreaks in the region.

The Bawku West and Garu Districts were notably affected, alongside sporadic cases in five other districts.

“This is a nationwide supplemental immunization activity, integrating measles-rubella vaccines with vitamin A supplementation. Earlier this year, we saw outbreaks across the country, including in the Upper East, where some districts recorded multiple cases” Dr. Boakye-Boateng explained.

He further clarified that, an outbreak is defined as three or more cases in a district, which was observed in Bawku West and Garu, prompting further investigation.

Source: Adomonline

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He said sustained efforts were needed to strengthen immunisation programmes in the region and increase and sustain demand for both routine and childhood immunisation and COVID-19 vaccination.

Dr Djokoto was speaking at a stakeholder engagement and the second quarter risk communication and sub-committee on demand generation and vaccine uptake in Ho on Wednesday.

About 80 risk communication sub-committee members of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), heads of department, unit heads, representatives of non-governmental organisations and traditional rulers attended the one-day meeting.

Dr Djokoto explained that high vaccine uptake was essential for achieving herd immunity and controlling the spread of infectious diseases.

He announced that a national mass campaign against Measles/Rubella would be organised to halt the spread of the disease, from October 2 to 6. He urged the public to patronise the programme with great zeal and enthusiasm.

“Vaccination is widely regarded as cost-effective, an investment in health security, a human right and essential for public health intervention targeted at reducing childhood mortality and morbidity,” he added.

Dr Djokoto said the region successfully vaccinated 2,556 children who had earlier missed their vaccination in the first half of this year against vaccine-preventable diseases, and 3,703 children were dosed with vitamin A supplements.

However, he said, many children were left unimmunised in the region in the 2024 half year, comprising 7,865 children for Panta three and 9,459 for Measles/Rubella two, using the vaccines as a proxy.

That, he said, had significantly contributed to the low vaccination rate in the region.

Meanwhile, Dr Djokoto said GHS was implementing various programmes and projects to boost vaccine uptake and improve health outcomes, including routine immunisation, mass vaccination campaigns, Child Health Promotion Week, African Vaccination Week, social mobilisation and advocacy.

COVID-19

He said the National COVID Vaccination Days campaign had also been added to achieve herd immunity. Still on COVID-19, Dr Djokoto said only 538,195 out of the 1,113,194 target population were fully vaccinated up to date, since March 2021.

The figure, he said, represented 48.3 per cent of its target population.

“This is not only one of the lowest rates in the country but also falls short of the 70 per cent target needed to adequately protect the entire population from COVID-19 outbreaks, despite the positive numerous rollouts of the vaccination campaigns,” he added.

The DDH said that although the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 as no longer a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), the virus still posed a significant global health hazard.

“It is, therefore, important that we continue with the vaccination drive to ensure protection to the entire population,” he said.

Way forward

On the way forward, the Regional Coordinator of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), Emmanuel Bonsu, highlighted the need to strengthen routine immunisation and supportive supervision and routinise COVID-19 vaccination.

“We must also conduct Measles/Rubella immunisation and Vitamin A supplementation campaign more vigorously,” he said.

A youth queenmother of Ho-Ahoe and a participant, Mama Kuma II, expressed concern over the growing number of junk food joints that operated only at night in Ho and called for concerted efforts and a mass education drive to curb the trend.

Source: GraphicOnline

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He, however, disclosed to the Ghana News Agency on Monday that the arrival of the vaccines was “timely, appropriate and God sent,” towards reducing the effect of an escalation of the outbreak of the disease”.

Dr Djokoto, however, said the region’s exercise to immunise the babies would hopefully start on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, as consignments were being distributed to the Municipal and District Health Directorates for onward transportation to the various facilities.

He appealed to parents especially nursing mothers to avail their babies to the hospitals for vaccination, to make up for the missed opportunities.

Dr Djokoto commended the media for bringing the shortage of vaccines onto the front burner, which resulted in expedited action to prevent a national calamity.

There was a shortage of vaccines for three childhood killer diseases, Measles, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and Polio, which threatened the country’s effort with the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI).

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The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service on Saturday received the first consignment of vaccines for the three childhood illnesses, and an announcement by the Ministry of Information, through a press statement said distribution to various regions and facilities was underway.

The statement indicated that more vaccines were expected in the coming weeks from multiple sources.

The Head of Pediatrics and Child Health at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), Professor Alhassan Abdul Mumin, has disclosed that there have been five suspected deaths due to Measles at the health facility.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Friday, he explained that “the only reason we still call them suspected cases is that we do not have the laboratory results up to now.

“We have five cases we admitted with suspected measles. The suspected measles have all the features that you will document for a child or a patient that has measles,” he said.

He noted that “there are still cases that are pending since November last year that we do not have the results back from the testing laboratory.

“So actually, we do have mortality even if they are not confirmed because laboratory results are not available,” he added.   

His assertion is contrary to Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu’s claim that no death related to Measles has been recorded.

“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. Indeed there have been no deaths since 2003, though we have recorded cases annually,” the Health Minister assured in a press briefing on Tuesday.

But the Head of Pediatrics and Child Health at the Tamale Teaching Hospital insists that some children have died from the disease.

According to him, this is not the first time he has seen cases of Measles.

He said in 2013, there was a mini outbreak of measles in Tamale in his 12 years of service and he helped to manage the situation.

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“I have been in Tamale for the last 12 years … so I know what a case of Measles looks like from the features that they present with and the case definition leaves nothing for ambiguity. So when you see a suspected case of Measles, you are only waiting to get the laboratory confirmation and you can now say that this is a confirmed case of Measles,” he explained.

He, however, stated that the government official might have made that comment due to the absence of the laboratory confirmation results.

This is according to the President-elect for the Paediatrics Society of Ghana, Dr Hilda Mantebea Boye.

The figures come amid the shortage of baby vaccines nationwide.

Ghana ran out of essential BCG and OPV vaccines as a result of the Ministry of Health’s failure to secure procurement of these vaccines since the year began.

The BCG vaccine is primarily needed to prevent the occurrence of tuberculosis in babies, while the OPV is to prevent polio infections.

Other essential vaccines to prevent diseases such as measles, whooping cough, etc. are also in short supply.

On the back of this, Dr Mantebea Boye on JoyNews’ The Probe said the cases is likely to increase if an intervention is not carried out immediately.

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“At the last count in the northern region, we have more than a hundred children who we suspect have measles. And it is very worrying to us.

“This is something ongoing so data is still being collected and because of the shortage of vaccines we expect that many more children could be affected by this. So the infection is likely to rise as the days go by,” she said on Sunday.

According to the GHS, the Greater Accra Region has recorded two confirmed cases of Measles and two confirmed cases of Rubella.

In a statement issued by the Acting Director of Health Services at the Ga North, Dr Maame Yaa Nhyira Essel, the GHS outlined some actions it has put in place in response to the surge.

“All health facilities and municipal public health staff are to strengthen the detection of suspected cases across all levels of care” while “routine immunisation” is “to be strengthened to reach all eligible children with the Measles-Rubella vaccine”.

Also, “mop-ups will be conducted to reach defaulters and all missed children”.

Additionally, there will be “health education on early reporting to health facilities as well as the “benefits of immunisation”, which the GHS said, “should be strengthened in all regions”.

It also reminded the general public of the signs and symptoms of measles including: “Dry cough, runny nose, sore throat, inflamed eyes (conjunctivitis), Kokpliks spot and skin rash.”

Symptoms of Rubella include: “Sore throat, fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes in the head or neck, conjunctivitis and a cough.”