The Advocates for Christ Ghana has added its voice to the many calls by Ghanaians for the government to take urgent measures to resolve the vaccine shortages that have rocked the country in the past six months.
The Advocates say the government must commit time and resources to maintain the success of the National Immunization Programme which is currently being “threatened by the current nationwide reports of erratic supply and shortages of some vaccines (i.e., Oral Polio, Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), pentavalent vaccine, and Rotavirus vaccine) in various health facilities across the country since June 20224, causing fear and panic among families with newborn babies.”
It further warned that “if we delay procuring the vaccines any longer, lives will be lost, families will be traumatized and the children who survive this public health emergency will be at risk of living with disabilities.”
Kindly read the full release below;
Vaccination is one of the success stories of public health and a cost-effective strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality to vaccine-preventable illnesses. Ghana’s success story on this front has been enviable. Data from the WHO Immunization dashboard indicates that a high proportion (>80%) of children actually receive their vaccinations on time, per the national schedule for childhood vaccinations. As a result, not a single death has been reported from measles, for instance, since 2003.
Unfortunately, this progress made over the years is threatened by current nationwide reports of erratic supply and shortages of some vaccines (i.e., Oral Polio, Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), pentavalent vaccine, and Rota virus vaccine) in various health facilities across the country since June 2022, causing fear and panic among families with newborn babies. In some parts of the country, the issue has been complicated by the scarcity of syringes like the BCG syringes and other consumables for a successful immunization program. The Director General of the Ghana Health Service has also confirmed “pockets” of outbreaks of Polio and Yellow fever since July 2022 which is worrying in the face of the recent shortages of these vaccines.
This is very worrying. It is evident that there is a problem that we cannot ignore. The situation is grave and the consequences are dire for this cohort of newborns who will live to tell their stories.
We are dealing with highly contagious viral diseases and this has to be urgently addressed. The timeliness of vaccination cannot be underestimated. If we delay procuring the vaccines any longer, lives will be lost, families will be traumatized and the children who survive this public health emergency will be at risk of living with disabilities. Their quality of life will in turn reduce and this will impact negatively on our already ailing economy.
We are aware that donor funding, which has been the backbone of the country’s immunization program and success story is expected to dry up by 2026 and this raises concerns about the need for us as a country to explore alternative sources of funding to make the national immunization program sustainable. Our knee-jerk approach over the years is proving catastrophic to the health of our newborn babies and other groups of the population that rely on vaccination as a life-saving measure.
In view of the above, we, the members of the Health Gate of Advocates for Christ Ghana add our voices to the public outcry against this injustice and demand the Minister of Health, Mr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu to:
1. Take responsibility for the public health emergency we are in now and apologize to the teeming families affected, rather than blaming the depreciating cedi, COVID-19, and vaccine manufacturers for shifting attention to COVID-19 vaccines to the detriment of others.
2. Galvanize all the necessary resources to order and procure these vaccines for our children. National mop-up immunization schedules should be activated for prompt exercise when the vaccines arrive. We cannot wait till the “next few weeks” to see this matter resolved.
3. Develop effective plans to curb such shortages in the future and make the Expanded Program on Immunization more sustainable. These plans should be publicly shared with the people of Ghana.
4. Compensate all affected families for any losses in case a child contracts any of these vaccine-preventable diseases in the near future.
5. Sufficiently equip health facilities with the requisite logistics including incentivizing frontline healthcare workers to deal with this imminent triple outbreak (we already have COVID-19 and Lassa fever we are dealing with).
6. As a matter of urgency prioritize health and healthcare delivery for the population. This should be demonstrated by increasing our health expenditure as a percentage of GDP by at least 15% as required by the Abuja Declaration.
7. Put the necessary funding mechanisms in place to encourage research and development in vaccines and vaccine development in Ghana. After 66 years of independence, is it not time to have vaccine sufficiency as a country?
In conclusion, the “next few weeks” are crucial for all children including those unborn, and our prayers are with all affected babies and their families. We hope that, the story of Rachel will never be ours to tell. For it is written in Matthew. 2:18 (NLT) that a cry was heard in Ramah – weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.
Let leadership demonstrate care and compassion by acting quickly to bring respite to these vulnerable and innocent children and their families.
