The WHO Representative to Ghana, Dr Magda Robalo, has commended Ghana for the continuous efforts to keep immunization coverage quite high and the burden of vaccine preventable diseases very low. She said Ghana stands tall for the country’s efforts to date, and the leadership in the introduction of vaccines against the major childhood killer diseases in the sub-region. Dr Robalo made the remarks during a press briefing to commemorate the fourth edition of the African Vaccination Week (AVW) in Accra which is under the theme‘Vaccination, a shared responsibility’ with the slogan ‘Vaccinated communities, healthy communities’. She said AFRO has set aside the last week of April every year since 2011 for African Vaccination Week with the goal to increase immunization coverage, reduce the burden of vaccine preventable diseases and achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4. Specific objectives for the week include (i) creating more awareness about the importance of immunization, (ii) informing communities about availability and safety of the immunization services and (iii) encouraging all caregivers to use the opportunity to complete their immunization schedules.

The National Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Manager, Dr George Bonsu made a presentation on the history and achievements of immunization globally and specifically in Ghana. He said immunization has led to the eradication of smallpox, the disappearance of measles, poliomyelitis and other classical infant killers such as whooping cough and tetanus in Ghana.  Dr Bonsu said Ghana has introduced vaccines for most of the childhood killer diseases and has 12 vaccines in the immunization schedule which include BCG, oral Polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B), haemophilus influenzae type B pneumococcus, rotavirus, measles, rubella and yellow fever.

This year’s AVW coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Child Health Promotion Week (CHPW) in the country. Briefing the media, the national Child Health Coordinator, Dr Isabella Sagoe-Moses, said CHPW is a week of mass delivery of integrated child survival interventions like Immunization, Vitamin A supplementation, Growth Monitoring, Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) distribution and Birth Registration instituted in 2004 and organized in the second week of May every year.

The deputy-Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Gloria Quansah chaired the function on behalf of the Minister of Health. She thanked development Partners for their continuous support for health care delivery in Ghana and invited all Partners present at the press briefing to join the national launch on May 2, 2014 in Bolgatanga.

UNICEF, USAID, Department of Birth and Deaths were among the key partners present. A large group of female traditional leaders (known as Queen mothers in Ghana) was also present at the press briefing.