Delivering the key note address on her behalf by the Chief Director of the Ministry of  the Ministry of Health Dr Afisa Zackaria, Her Excellency the First Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Mrs Lordina Mahama, mentioned that tremendous progress had been made in the domain of reducing childhood illnesses and deaths and preventing the spread of vaccine preventable diseases.

Yet, we cannot tell our success story until every African country had achieved 100% immunization coverage. “We cannot claim any real success for ourselves, until services are scaled-up to the hard to reach children who still do not have access to basic vaccines in the year 2016. This vision is not only for Ghana but the entire 20% of children in Africa who have not yet been reached with basic immunization services on the continent” she added.

Mrs Laudina Mahama emphasized that there was the need to collectively prioritize immunization as a key intervention to reduce child mortality. She reiterated that vaccination saves children’s lives, and keep adults, communities and nations healthy, safeguarding families from the cycle of poverty, by increasing their resilience to disease.

Her Excellency the First lady said that Ghana’s journey had not been an easy one. It had taken great sacrifice by the health personnel, commitment by all policy makers and stakeholders; strong collaboration with health partners including the GAVI Alliance, UNICEF, WHO, Rotary International, JICA and recently the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. “Through a concerted effort, they have supported policies and programmes to ensure the success of public health interventions as a whole, and immunization services in particular. Especially, following our attainment of a lower middle income status, the Government and people of Ghana sincerely appreciate the manner in which our partners and stakeholders present have worked in collaboration to sustain and strengthen the gains made in immunization coverage. The Government of Ghana fully understands and acknowledges this responsibility. However, the continued and sustained strength of our partnerships will ensure that we reach every woman and every child in record time” she concluded.

In a speech read on behalf of UN Agencies, Dr Owen Kaluwa, WHO Country Representative, noted that this year’s theme “Good Life, Start Right; Close the Immunization Gap; with the slogan ‘Stay Polio Free’ underlined the need to attain universal access to immunization and other child survival interventions, starting from birth and also eradicate polio in the very near future in the African Region. 

He mentioned that Ghana, through its comprehensive EPI multi-year strategic plan, had already translated the Immunization Strategic Plan 2014–2020 of the African region into national priorities and actions. This he said was to provide universal access to immunization and other life-saving interventions for everyone by 2020, particularly to vulnerable populations. “I am reliably informed that in the ensuing week activities such as Immunization, Vitamin A Supplementation, Growth Monitoring Promotion of ITN Use etc, aimed at improving child health will be rolled out in all public health facilities across the country. “ Indeed these activities have over years proven to be effective and I would like to take this opportunity to commend the Ministry of Health and its Agencies for sustaining this initiative” Dr Kaluwa said.

He emphasized that the African Vaccination and Child Health Promotion Week offered opportunity for some of the gaps to be closed, adding that it was commendable for the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ghana Health Service (GHS) to include the African Vaccination/Child Health Promotion Week celebrations into its strategic and annual immunization plans. He however emphasized that resource mobilization was essential to enable all regions and districts to actively participate in these activities.

“I would like to thank the Government and all stakeholders for the continuous commitment for immunization programmes and the support in commemorating the African Vaccination/Child Health Promotion Week every year. WHO will continue to work with the Government of Ghana and other stakeholders to strengthen the health system in order to attain the universal health coverage and also protect the fundamental human right to health of all” Dr Kaluwa concluded.

Mrs Theresa Osei Tutu, President and Rotary Polio Plus Partner of Rotary International said the Club had raised funds to support countries that have reported cases of polio this year (Pakistan and Afghanistan) to ensure zero tolerance for the disease in the world.

The Programmes Manager for Expanded Programmes of Immunization (EPI) in Ghana, Dr George Bonsu has advised Ghanaians to continue to immunize their children to help keep away the threat of polio. 

“The threat of polio still remains despite the achievement and Polio will continue to threaten children everywhere” he mentioned. 

Dr George Bonsu said despite the fact that Ghana is recertified as Polio free since 2008, Polio would continue to threaten children everywhere as long as it exists somewhere and there were pockets of children who are not being reached with vaccinations.

He explained that in Ghana, 1 in 10 children do not receive the third dose of oral polio vaccine in Ghana while 1 in 5 children still do not receive all the basic vaccines they need. He therefore urged the governments, partners, health care workers, non-governmental organisations and civil society organisation, parents and other stakeholders to invest time and resources in vaccination. 

Dr Edward Antwi, National Child Health Coordinator noted that the major causes of under- five mortality has been pneumonia, malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and measles. He explained that Ghana has over the years integrated the African Vaccination Week (AVW) with Child Health Promotion Week (CHPW) as one of the sustainable ways of improving coverage of preventive  child survival interventions. These interventions include, Immunization, Vitamin A Supplementation, Growth monitoring, Promotion of ITN use, Birth Registration. He emphasized that these services are provided free to children and encouraged mothers and caregivers to send their children to access these services. 

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For further details, please contact:

Technical Contact: Mr Stanley DIAMENU, EPI Focal Point, WHO/Ghana, email:  diamenus [at] who.int (diamenus[at]who[dot]int) ; phone: 233 21 763 918 9 

Media Contact: ANSONG, Joana, Health Promotion Officer, WHO/Ghana, email:  ansongj [at] who.int (ansongj[at]who[dot]int); phone: 233 30 276 391 8

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Below:

1 Dr Afisa Zackaria delivering the Keynote Address on behalf of the First Lady of Ghana 

2 Dr Owen Kaluwa delivering a speech at the function 

3 Mrs Theresa Osei Tutu  President of Rotary International 

4 Dr George Bonsu EPI Manager making a presentation 

5 Dr Edward Antwi being interviewed by the media 

6 WR being interviewed after the Launch 

7 WR being interviewed after the Launch