Parliament has excused the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, over the steps being taken to address the shortage of childhood vaccines in the country.
He had been scheduled by the Business Committee of the house to address the House on the shortage of Vaccines.
Several parts of the country have been hit with a shortage of vaccines in the last few months despite claims by the National Health Insurance Authority that over GH¢70 million has been released for the procurement of the vaccines.
The concerning situation piqued the interest of the Chairman of Parliament’s Health Committee, Nana Ayew Afriyie, who sees the need to call the Minister of Health and other agency heads to an emergency meeting on Tuesday, February 28.
The Health Minister who was scheduled to appear in the House on February 28, 2023, failed to show up, thus courting the wrath of the Minority.
Meanwhile, the Paediatric Society of Ghana has revealed that over 500 cases of measles have so far been recorded in the country due to the unavailability of essential vaccines.
Dr Hilda Boye, the newly elected President of the Paediatric Society of Ghana said the situation is quite worrying because the delay in the arrival of the vaccines can potentially escalate the disease.
“As we speak, we are looking at about 500 suspected cases of measles. So we are worried because we are just sitting and watching, and it is getting worse by the day and that is expected also because it is an infectious disease, and we really shouldn’t have come to this place in the first place.
“We know how bad these illnesses are, and we know that there is a solution and everybody had to sit up so that we don’t get to this point,” Dr Boye said on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, March 7.
