Credit: Nelson Ayivor
Aflao (VR), March 16, GNA – The Ketu South Municipal Health Directorate has stepped up community engagement and sensitization against measles-rubella and other childhood killer diseases and are expected to rollout targeted immunization especially in affected communities on Friday.
Stocks of vaccines run out since the last quarter of 2022, compelling health facilities across the country to resort to supportive treatment to deal with the outbreaks of the disease.
Mr. David Agbokpe, Ketu South Municipal Director of Health Services disclosed in an interview with the Ghana News Agency that the directorate took delivery of the vaccines on Monday March 13, and has started distributing them to the various facilities within the Municipality pending the immunization exercise starting Friday.
He said the directorate would begin the immunization of all children under five years, starting from communities where cases have been recorded, in a bid to prevent the spread of the diseases especially measles, 16 cases of which were recorded between the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 in some parts of the Municipality.
Mr Agbokpe said the directorate was engaging the communities to sensitize them in advance before the roll out of the immunization exercise.
He called on residents of the Municipality to be calm as the vaccines taken delivery of were enough to cater for almost all the communities within the Municipality.
He said the Municipality had not recorded any new case and that his outfit was working hard to ensure that all children under five were immunized in the Municipality to prevent any new cases.
The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service took delivery of the first consignment of vaccines for Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), Measles-Rubella (MR), and Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) on Saturday, March 11.
This came days after the sector minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu assured the nation on the floor of Parliament that the vaccines would arrive soon.
GNA