The Paediatric Society of Ghana has disclosed that over 500 children have contracted measles due to the shortage of vaccines in the country.
The delay in the arrival of the vaccines has the potential to worsen the situation, according to Dr. Hilda Boye, the recently elected President of the Paediatric Society of Ghana.
“As we speak, we are looking at about 500 suspected cases of measles. So we are worried because we are just sitting and watching, and it is getting worse by the day and that is expected also because it is an infectious disease, and we really shouldn’t have come to this place in the first place.
“We know how bad these illnesses are, and we know that there is a solution and everybody had to sit up so that we don’t get to this point,” Dr Boye said.
Many regions of the nation have experienced a vaccination scarcity in recent months, despite assertions by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) that more than GH70 million has been made available for the purchase of the vaccines.
Today, March 7, the Health Minister, Mr. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, is expected to address the House on the measures taken to alleviate the nation’s lack of pediatric immunizations.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has blamed the depreciation of the Ghana Cedi for the lack of vaccinations required for routine infant immunization.
There is a chance that the lack of immunizations will make children more susceptible to the illnesses that the shots are meant to prevent.