Save The Children of Ghana Now; They Need The Vaccines!

It is deeply depressing and shameful that in this modern era and in a Lower Middle Income Country, the government of Ghana has failed to provide vaccines to cover some Childhood killer diseases including Measles.

It is a notorious fact that millions of African children under five years perish from childhood killer diseases every year. This being the case, I expected the government to be responsible enough to prioritise and pay for the needed vaccines to protect the children of Ghana.

But, that has not been the case. The Akufo-Addo/NPP government has failed! The government has refused to act on time, thus has failed in protecting the future leaders of our country.

Presently, there has been over one-hundred (100) cases of measles documented in northern Ghana with the potential threat of further spread to other parts of Ghana.

With the possibility of measles infection affecting the brain, we must do everyrhing within our power as citizens to force this clueless government to secure the vaccines in order to save the situation, lest they maim our children with complications from the childhood killer diseases.

Listening to the Minister for Health, I got frightened that the entire government believes and cannot differentiate between the global low uptake of childhood vaccines and non-availability of vaccines in Ghana, caused by their incompetence.

They blame Covid-19 for everything!

Whereas the global low uptake during the COVID-19 era was an unintended consequence of over-focusing on COVID-19 vaccinations to the neglect of existing vaccine programmes, the acute and severe shortage of vaccines in Ghana cannot be related to Covid-19.

On the contrary, evidence suggests that between October to December 2022, childhood vaccines were over-manufactured due to the phenomenon of low uptake: the Srum Institute of India and Biological E. Limited refers.

Therefore, what happened to the Ghc72 million transferred from the National Health Insurance Authority to procure the vaccines?

What happened to sound technical advice from the experts and managers of Ghana’s immunisation programme?

The government must save all of us from this monumental national disgrace of not providing life-saving vaccines for Ghanaian children.

In the State of the Nation’s address today, I demand without fail that President Akufo-Addo informs Parliament and Ghanaians about the quantum of vaccines ordered so far, and exactly when they will arrive in Ghana to be administered to the children of Ghana, our future leaders.

Ho. Theresa L. Awuni
MP. Okaikoi North.