PRIORITISE IMMUNIZATION TO REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY ...DR LORDINA URGES STAKEHOLDERS

First Lady Dr Lordina Mahama has stressed the need for all especially stakeholders in the health sector to collectively prioritize immunization. 

Immunization she noted is a key intervention to reduce child mortality. 

 “Vaccination saves children’s lives, and keep adults, communities and nations healthy, safeguarding families from the cycle of poverty, by increasing their resilience to disease” she said. 

The First lady made the call in a speech read on her behalf by the Chief Director of Ministry of Health Dr Afisah Zakariah at the commemoration of the 6^th African Vaccination and Child Health Promotion weeks in Accra. 

African Vaccination Week is celebrated annually to strengthen immunisation programmes in the Africa Region, by increasing public awareness on the importance of every child, every woman and every person’s need and right to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. 

According to the First lady, this year’s African Vaccination Week occurs at a very important time in the history of immunisation in the African region due to the fact that Nigeria have  been removed from the list of Polio endemic countries and Political Leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to intensify efforts to provide immunisation services to all African children at  the First Ministerial Conference in Africa.

“Indeed, tremendous progress has been made in the domain of reducing childhood illnesses and deaths and preventing the spread of vaccine preventable diseases. Yet, we cannot tell our success story until every African country has learned from the great achievements of our sister nations that have already achieved 90% immunisation coverage. We cannot claim any real success for ourselves, until services are scaled-up to the hard to reach children who still do not have access to basic vaccines in the year 2016”. This vision she said is not only for Ghana but the entire 20% of children in Africa who have not yet been reached with basic immunization services on the continent.

Being the President of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), Dr Lordina Mahama said together with her colleague First Ladies have joined hands to strive to achieve a common vision of making Africa a continent free from HIV and AIDS, maternal and child mortality; and a place where women and girls are empowered to enjoy equal rights and opportunities. “Thus, we have committed to advocate for access and investments to life-saving vaccines for Africa’s mothers, newborn, children and adolescents”she said.

Dr Lordina Mahama said the commemoration by member states, to renew their efforts to reach every child with routine immunisation and to improve child health outcomes remains of utmost importance to the First Ladies of Africa. “ Because, as long as one country trails behind, we are all at risk of backtracking on the progress achieved thus far.  We must all help to close the Immunisation gap; we can stay polio free.” She added.

Touching on the global theme for this year’s African Vaccination Week is “Close the Immunization Gap. Stay Polio Free” which draws attention to the need for universal immunisation coverage on the African Continent and particularly for Ghana Dr Lordina Mahama noted that all must stay vigilant to ensure that all countries remain polio free.

For his part, World Health Organization Representative  to Ghana, Dr Owen Kaluwa indicated that three million children under five years die each yaer in the Africa Region and that a significant number of these deaths could be prevented by vaccines. “Receiving routine immunization is essential to attain the highest standard of health, particularly for women and children to become healthy and productive adults” he noted.

Dr Kaluwa expressed worry about the the inability of 60,000 children less than 1 year to receive the 3^rd dose of the pentavalent, oral polio and the pneucoccal vaccines in Ghana and also the low coverage of less than 50percent of the pentavalent vaccines in two municipalities in Ghana .

 These short comings he believes are major gaps that needed to be closed through conceited efforts by all. Dr Kaluwa commended the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Health for including the African Vaccination and Child Health Promotion week into its strategic and annual immunization plans but calls for more resource mobilization to enable all regions and districts to actively participate in these activities.

Programme Manager of Expanded Programme on Immunization(EPI), Dr George Bonsu noted that despite the achievements in immunization in Ghana, one in five children still do not receive all the basic vaccines they need. 

“ As we commemorate the sixth edition of African Vaccination Week, it is critical to highlight the role of government,partners health workers , NGOs and families to invest time and resources in vaccination.

Ghana has over the years integrated the African Vaccination Week with Child health Promotion week as one of the sustainable ways of improving coverage of preventive child survival interventions which include Immunization,Vitamin A supplementation, Growth monitoring , Promotion of ITN use and Birth registration..