As part of efforts to overcome high child mortality rate resulting from malaria, the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service and other partners have launched a new malaria vaccine as an additional measure to combat the disease.
[contextly_sidebar id=”V6dndtHBrRXcCB0ZpceMgRu1sXgBWsPv”]As of 2016, Ghana recorded more than ten million suspected cases of malaria with over a thousand deaths.
Speaking at the launch of the new vaccine, Mosquirix, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Nsiah Asare expressed confidence in the outcome of the vaccine.
“As we speak now, we have taken delivery of about 400,000 doses of vaccines.We will continue to monitor the safety of the vaccines. We believe that we are ready to launch the project Godwilling on the 30th of April 2019 at Cape Coast. This vaccination is going to be used to stop malaria from killing our children.”
Ghana Health Service to pilot malaria vaccine in April
A few weeks ago, the National Immunization Programme Manager of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. George Bonsu also made a similar announcement, saying the rollout, will be in four districts within the Brong Ahafo, Central, Upper East and Volta regions.
Dr Bonsu was speaking at the launch of a five-day Strategic Training Executive Programme (STEP) held in Accra for leaders in supply chain management, which as at now, has expanded to five countries in Africa.
It was organised by GHS and the Global Alliance for Vaccine Immunization (GAVI) in partnership with United Parcel Services (UPS) to provide healthcare personnel with soft skill, leadership skills and competencies identified with the private sector to enhance their performance.
He said the selection of the pilot regions was based on their high prevalence rate of Malaria, child mortality pattern, among others.
The Programme’s Manager said the vaccine will require a four-dose regiment.
The vaccine, which would be administered based on age, will be given to children in not only Ghana but also Kenya and Malawi, who are six, seven, nine and 24 months, Dr Bonsu emphasized.
This, he said, would set the stage for other African countries to enjoy the Programme which is sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO), GAVI Support, GSK-manufacturers of the Vaccine, Global Fund and Government of Ghana.
By: Marian Ansah| citinewsroom.com| Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah
