The Paediatric Society of Ghana has successfully held a measles response training program for Healthcare professionals in the country and beyond.
The training program which was held virtually had expert health professionals treat topics such as the Global/National trends of measles, the resurgence; the role of co-financing, the management of measles and nursing care for a child with measles.
Also discussed at the training program was advocacy for the improvement of vaccines stock with over 3,000 participants joining via zoom and on Youtube.
In her opening remarks of the program, President-elect of the PSG Dr. Hilda Mantebea Boye urged Government to as a matter of urgency take steps to provide the childhood vaccines now.
She added that the training and capacity building initiative of the PSG is directed towards managing providing insights in managing children with measles and help in containing the spread.
“The country was faced with an acute shortage of vaccines and as a result we risk losing the gains we have made in the under-5 mortality of Ghana”
“Since we we shared our press statement registering our concerns with the vaccines shortage. We have several engagements with the media and we have been urging the government to provide the vaccines for our children now… We advocate and we teach. We have found that training or building capacity for our members and other people in health care professionals in Ghana will help to place us in managing the children who are developing measles and also help to prevent further spread while we wait for the vaccines to come in”
In his presentation, out-going President of the PSG and a Paediatric Intensivist, Dr. John Adabie also called on volunteers within academia, government agencies, public health institutions to partner in the Paediatric Society of Ghana’s effort in public awareness creation and in lobbying government and legislators on the childhood vaccine shortage crisis
“Partnerships are needed from volunteers from academic institutions, vaccine licensing authorities, public health institutes, governmental organizations, safety units within the vaccine manufacturing industry as well as practising physicians. Irrespective of fiscal, economic, and insurance status vaccines must made be accessible to babies and children to complete all scheduled immunizations.”
Emergency Health Nurse, Ms. Eugenia Osei during her presentation also advised the wearing of protective clothing when nursing children with measles, she also called for the need to practice good personal and hand hygiene when dealing with children with measles, adding that the use of alcohol based sanitizers and the ues of medically approved hand gloves were essential when dealing with measles cases.
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 Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu while addressing Parliament on Thursday, March 9, reiterated his promise that efforts are underway to ensure that vaccines are procured for children although he is unsure of when exactly the vaccines will arive.
“Mr Speaker, we are expecting to receive vaccines within two to three weeks. We have done all the necessary arrangements and within two to three weeks we should get vaccines. We have done everything to ensure that we get these vaccines earlier, but it will be very difficult for me to tell you exactly when the vaccines will arrive,” Agyemang-Manu said.
Watch the measles training program here:
