Dr Letsa administering the vaccines to a child
A TOTAL of 13,585 children in the Brong Ahafo Region got diarrhoea in 2011, resulting in the untimely death of 128 of the victims.
The region, in the same period, also recorded a total of 9,127 cases of pneumonia with 31 deaths, according to statistics revealed by the regional director of health services, Dr Timothy Letsa.
Dr Letsa disclosed this at the regional launching of two new vaccines and celebration of family planning week at Fiapre, near Sunyani, last Thursday.
The launching of the vaccines was a partnership between the Ghana Health Service and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) to introduce two new vaccines for pneumonia and Rotavirus diarrhoea diseases into the routine Expanded Programme on Immunisation.
The pneumococcal vaccine will protect children from pneumonia, ear infection and meningitis whilst the rotavirus vaccine protects against diarrhoea caused by the rotavirus.
Dr Letsa said the objective of introducing the two new vaccines was to reduce illness and deaths due to pneumonia and diarrhoea in children under five years, adding that this was as a step towards achieving Millennium Development Goal 4 which dealt with the reduction of infant mortality within the stipulated time frame of 2015.
“For Ghana therefore with high disease burden of diarrhoea and pneumonia, I will say that the introduction of vaccines for pneumonia and Rotavirus diarrhoea diseases is very timely,” he stated.
He indicated that service providers had been well trained to administer the two vaccines which were already in use in the region since May 2012. He therefore called on everyone to embrace them at all levels of immunisation activities.
Ghana launched the Expanded Programme on Immunisation in 1978 with only six antigens covering six childhood diseases namely, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, measles, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and neonatal tetanus. In 1992, an additional vaccine was introduced to cover yellow fever and in 2002, hepatitis B and haemophus influenza vaccines were also introduced.
Since then, he noted, the performance of the region in the Expanded Programme on Immunisation had been very good. He disclosed that in 2011, BCG measles, yellow fever, influenza and hepatitis B coverage was above 90%. He however said neonatal tetanus for the same year was 81% which was below the regional target of 90%.
Touching on the family planning week celebration, Dr Letsa noted with regret that family planning acceptance rate in Brong Ahafo had been declining for the past two years, dropping to 37% in 2011.
He revealed that unsafe abortion was one of the challenges the region was currently facing in the delivery of reproductive health services. He said maternal mortality in the region was also unacceptably high as the region recorded 76 maternal deaths in 2011.
To help stem the trend, the regional director mentioned that a number of interventions had been put in place to improve reproductive health in the region. This, he said, included ensuring regular supply of family planning products, providing family planning counseling services to clients, making family planning commodities available and affordable, improving emergency obstetric care and signing of Memorandum of Understanding with GPRTU to transport women in labour to health facilities.
The chief of Chiraa, Nana Opoku Ababio, who chaired the function, commended health personnel in the region for their selfless efforts in combating diseases, especially among children.
The chief urged policymakers to make antenatal and postnatal services compulsory for all women so that illness and deaths among children would be reduced.
In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, the queen-mother of Chiraa, Nana Yeboaah Pene II, advised women to take family planning seriously to help them take care of their children since a small family size would enable them to manage their homes better.
FROM Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako, Fiapre
