The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has launched the last phase of the Yellow Fever Preventive Mass Vaccination Campaign at Nsawam in the Eastern Region on Tuesday, November 10, 2020.
The vaccination exercise scheduled to take place from 12th to 18th November 2020 in 81 Districts in 14 regions in the country is targeting 5.8 million people.
The beneficiary regions are ; Ahafo North(2)districts ,Ashanti Region (5), Bono(4),Bono East (2) , Central Region (11), Eastern Region (20) ,Greater Accra (5), and Northern Region(13) .The rest are North East Region (2), Savannah Region (1) ,Upper East Region(10) ,Upper West (2), Volta Region(2), Oti Region (2).
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease that is transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The disease has no cure but a single dose of vaccination is capable of preventing infection in the entire life of an individual.
An estimated 200,000 yellow fever cases with 30,000 deaths are recorded annually worldwide.
The Director-General of GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye said in a speech read on his behalf by the Eastern Regional Director of GHS, Dr. Winfred Ofosu, stated that in 2010 Ghana conducted a Yellow Fever Risk Assessment which the results showed that, to reduce the risk, a two-phased Yellow Fever Preventive Mass Vaccination exercise be carried out: Phase “A” which covered 58 districts in 2011, 15 districts in 2012, and 65 districts in December 2018.
Phase “B” which will start November 12, 2020, will cover 81 districts where eligible person’s age between 10 to 60 years with the exclusion of pregnant women will be vaccinated.
Speaking to Mybrytfmonline.com, Dr. Winfred Ofosu stated that “It is phase “A” and Phase “B”. Phase A tried to look at the District at most risk and phase “B” looking at those at less risk .so Eastern Region has a high number of those with low risk. Yellow fever is still endemic .it is important to say that the Yellow fever virus is still with us and then the mosquitoes that transmit the yellow fever are also around breeding and multiplying so the risk of anyone that is not protected getting the yellow fever infection is very that is why we have to protect all the legible people against the yellow fever disease.
He added “Yellow fever is a killer disease. We do not have a cure for it; the only way is to prevent it by protecting individuals through vaccination. The vaccines are very safe. We’ve been using these vaccines since 1992 and we have not had any serious adverse effect so we know that the vaccines are very safe. So we want to encourage everyone in all these 81 targeted districts to accept this vaccine.”
He said the Ghana Health Service has trained over seven hundred thousand health workers and volunteers who will be available at all health facilities and temporary health posts to administer the vaccine to all persons aged 10 to 60 years with exception of pregnant women
Additionally, mobile teams will move to towns and villages where they may be located at schools, Churches, mosquitoes, bus stops, security barriers, and market areas to vaccinate eligible persons. He assured that the Covid-19 preventive protocols will be strictly heeded.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Obed Ansah
