By Edward Williams
Ho, Aug. 30, GNA – Dr Chrysantus Kubio, the Volta Regional Director of Health Services, at the region’s half-year review meeting, said it made significant progress in all three objectives of the Health Sector Medium Term Development Plan.
The improvements were seen in the universal access to better and efficiently managed quality essential health services, avoidable maternal deaths, adolescent and child deaths and disabilities and increased access to responsive clinical and public health emergency services.
Dr Kubio said this in an address during a stakeholders’ engagement and second-quarter risk communication sub-committee meeting towards demand generation and vaccine uptake in Ho.
Stakeholders took the opportunity to look at the various areas for improvement consistent with the philosophy of continuous upgrades.
He said one area that necessitated the organisation of the engagement was the performance gaps when it came to routine immunisation and COVID-19 vaccination in the Volta Region, with some districts there being part of those that recorded measles outbreaks in recent times.
Dr Kubio said unfortunately, some children were left unimmunised in the 2024 half year, comprising 7,865 children for “Penta 3” and 9,459 for “measles/rubella 2”.
However, he said using the vaccines as a proxy had significantly contributed to the low vaccination rate.
He said rubella cases were also on the rise and although below the epidemic threshold, the region recorded eight confirmed cases of measles this year.
To halt the spread of those diseases, Dr Kubio said national mass campaigns would be organised in all the districts in the 16 regions of Ghana from October 2 to 6, 2024.
He added that the inability to vaccinate all children from vaccine-preventable diseases had consequences and that sustained efforts were needed to strengthen the immunisation programme to achieve the desired outcomes.
“High vaccine uptake is essential for achieving herd immunity and controlling the spread of infectious diseases,” he added.
Dr Kubio said vaccination was widely regarded as cost-effective, an investment in health security, and human rights and essential for public health intervention targeted at reducing childhood mortality and morbidity.
The region successfully vaccinated 2,556 children across all the antigens and 3,703 children were dosed with vitamin A supplement during the African Vaccination Week and Child Health Promotion Week.
Stakeholder commitment and dedication had been invaluable in the journey but in the face of current developments, there was the need for more inputs and innovative measures to drive closer to the goals of preventing disease outbreaks.
GNA