Yellow Fever Vaccination Starts Today, 5M People Targeted

Over five million people in Ghana have been targeted for a massive yellow fever vaccination scheduled to begin today through to December 24, 2018.

Making this announcement at the official launch held in Sunyani, last Friday, Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare said, the campaign targets people between 10 to 60 years and would be conducted in 65 districts in nine regions, free of charge.

With the exception of Upper West Region, which has already been vaccinated, the seven-day campaign hopes to capture as many people as possible.

According to Dr. Nsiah-Asare, yellow fever has emerged as a serious global health threat and therefore called for concerted efforts to make the campaign successful.

“It requires active support and engagements of traditional authorities, civil society actors and the municipal and district assemblies to make the campaign attain its desired results,” he said.

Under the theme: “Get Vaccinated and Be Protected Against Yellow Fever”, the campaign is being supported by the UNICEF, GAVI and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Nsiah-Asare said 15 per cent of yellow fever cases developed severe complications and appealed to the general public to report symptoms such as fever, jaundice, muscle ache, vomiting and loss of appetite to the nearest health facility for treatment.

He said since 1992 the GHS has implemented several programmes including routine immunization services and mass vaccination campaigns to eliminate communicable diseases.

Dr George Bonsu, the Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), said GAVI, a global vaccine alliance has approved six million doses of vaccines for the prevention campaign.

He said the GHS with support from its partners is determined to ensure that the nation achieves 100 per cent yellow fever vaccination exercise, indicating that in 2019 the remaining 74 districts would be captured under the campaign.

The disease

Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The “yellow” in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients.

Symptoms of yellow fever include fever, headache, jaundice, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue.

By: The Publisher