Western Region making a mark in immunization programmes

By Mildred Siabi-Mensah GNA 

Takoradi, Feb.26, GNA - The Western Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service continue to make a steady progress with regards to immunization and all antigens administration.

Dr Jacob Mahama, the Director of the Regional Health Services, almost all the 115, 500 children under eleven months that were targeted for various immunizations in 2017 was attended to.

“We achieved 88 percent gain in 2017 as against 95 in 2016 for BCG, for OPV we dipped from 86 percent in 2016 to 78 percent in 2017. For the second dose of measles Rubella it moved from 68 percent to 71 percent”, he added.

Dr Mahama gave the figures during the 2017 annual performance review meeting of the directorate for facilities across the Region

The meeting was to render account and look for more innovative ways to improve upon performance in 2018.

He said the greatest gain was in meningitis vaccination, “we moved from 10 percent in 2016 to 70 percent in 2017, although we have performed creditably as a region in nearly all the antigens there are still districts that consistently lagged in the immunization services”.

Dr Mahama however bemoaned the absence of vaccines during the year under review which affected performance and quality issues.

He mentioned that the six port health facilities carried out conveyance, surveillance, food inspection, sanitation and hygiene and vaccination activities with a total of 4,070 conveyances inspected.

Again, 350,000 passengers’ were screened, 124 bodies inspected, 250 tons of food, meat and poultry inspected and passed for human consumption whiles 4000 vaccinations carried out in Elubo and Takoradi townships.

Dr Mahama acknowledged the contributions of partners such as USAID system for health, the IPAS, UNICEF, WHO, DFID and the district assemblies for their enormous contributions towards quality healthcare delivery in the country and the Region in particular.

The Regional Director,   however stressed the need for effective transport services to enable the directorate to actively monitor and supervise the performance of facilities.

“we need to experience what is reported to us on daily and weekly basis ourselves to appreciate what it means to be in the forefront of health care delivery and without efficient transport system it is impossible”, the Regional Director  added.

GNA

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