By Stanley Senya
Accra, March 10, GNA – Members of the “Health Gate of Advocates for Christ Ghana” has called on Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu, the Minister for Health to galvanise all the necessary resources to order and procure vaccines for children to reduce morbidity and mortality to vaccine-preventable illnesses.
A news statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said, the health minister should take responsibility for the public health emergency and develop effective plans to curb shortages in the future and make the Expanded Programme on Immunisation more sustainable.
The call was in reaction to the shortage of six childhood disease vaccines, resulting in the outbreak of measures in some parts of the country.
It said there must be sufficiently equipped health facilities with the requisite logistics including incentivizing frontline healthcare workers to deal with imminent outbreak.
The statement said the Minister must put in the necessary funding mechanisms in place to encourage research and development in vaccines and vaccine development in the country.
“After 66 years of Independence, is it not time to have vaccine sufficiency as a country?”, it said.
However, it said there must be a compensation to all affected families for any losses in case a child contracts any of the vaccine-preventable diseases soon.
“We are dealing with highly contagious viral diseases, and this has to be urgently addressed”, the statement said.
GNA