N/R: Ghana Health Service launches Measles and Malaria Immunization exercise

The Northern Regional Health Directorate, has joined other regions across the country, to commence immunization exercise for measles, targeting children between the ages of nine months to 59 months across the region.

The exercise commences on Wednesday, October 2, and is expected to end on Sunday, October 6, 2024.

The exercise aimed at safeguarding children from measles and rubella while also providing essential vitamin A supplementation to support their overall health and well-being.

The campaign is on the theme: “Measles and Rubella kills, vaccinate your child now for good life”.

At a media engagement in Tamale on Tuesday October 1, 2024, the Northern Regional Director of Ghana Health Service, Dr Mohammed Sulemana, highlighted the importance of the exercise.

He said the exercise is expected to cover 412,942 children in the region.

He noted that the vaccination programme in the country over the years has contributed immensely to Ghana’s modest reduction in under five mortality and improvement in child health.

“There have been successes in measles control, polio eradication efforts, maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination and control of diarrhea and pneumonia in children” he mentioned.

Dr Sulemana bemoaned that, despite these notable achievements, vaccination coverage has stagnated for some time now. “More than 10 percent of our children are unreached with immunization services. Therefore, continued efforts are required to fully protect all our children from vaccine preventable diseases”.

He said, the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey for 2022 indicated 56.5% coverage in 2022 and the Expanded Program on Immunization Survey in 2023 showed 76.9% which is far less than the 95% target coverage required to achieve measles elimination.

“Supplementary Immunization Activities for Measles- Rubella is an effective strategy for delivering vaccination to children otherwise missed by routine services thereby increasing vaccination equity”, he explains.

He further explained that “Measles elimination is possible if population immunity is kept at more than 95% coverage over long periods through routine immunization and Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIA) such as this exercise.”

He thus called on stakeholders across the region to support the exercise by participating and ensuring that all children are vaccinated as scheduled by age.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Northern Regional Health Directorate also rolled out a malaria vaccine exercise in the Northern Region.

Story By: Alhassan Yakubu |www.diamondfmonline.com |Ghana.