The Communication Bureau of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) led by Abdallah Jonathan Salifu has raised an alarm following the non-Availiability of vaccines for newborn babies in the Upper East Region.
The statement says, “As part of the measures to deal with the devastating effects and to save the lives of our newborn babies, past governments have collaborated and directly provided funding for the procurement of vaccines to vaccinate our children within the age bracket of 0-6years against the diseases under the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) adopted since the 1980s”.
“Further checks revealed that these vaccines are equally not in stock at Zipline which serves as the last resort when the need arises”.
Kindly read the full statement below:
UPPER EAST MUST KNOW SERIES PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY COMRADE JONATHAN ABDALLA SALIFU, UPPER EAST REGIONAL COMMUNICATION OFFICER ON THE NON-SUPPLY OF ROUTINE VACCINES FOR THE SIX-KILLER CHILDHOOD DISEASES IN THR UPPER EAST REGION.
21 February, 2023.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, I wish to first of all thank you all for availing yourselves for this maiden “UPPER EAST MUST KNOW SERIES” press conference which is among a series to come.
Friends from the media, we have called you here this morning to address you on a very disturbing development within the health sector and health service delivery in our region. This development, ladies and gentlemen, has to do with the shortage of routine vaccines meant for the immunization of our new born babies and children under five years against the effects of the six killer diseases and others such as diphtheria, measles, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, and childhood diarrhoea.
As part of the measures to deal with the devastating effects and to save the lives of our new born babies, past governments have collaborated and directly provided funding for the procurement of vaccines to vaccinate our children within the age bracket of 0-6years against the diseases under the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) adopted since the 1980s.
This Immunization program received a major boost during the NDC’s administration in 2012 when our country took the lead as the first country in the continent to introduce and rolled out simultaneously two major vaccines namely, the pneumococcal and Rotavirus vaccines as part of the drive to win the fight against the diseases. By this singular and giant step, the erstwhile H.E John Evans Atta Mills NDC government saved this country approximately US$3.2 million annually and about 12,000 and 10,000 pneumonia and childhood diarrhoea related deaths respectively. This translated to about 25% reduction in deaths associated with the diseases (Gavi Vaccines Alliance, 2012).
Sadly, these gains that have consciously been made by successive governments preceding the current regime have been eroded owing to the ineptitude of this wicked and talkative Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, our checks from the health facilities in the districts across the region show that Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, OPV Polio, measles, yellow fever, MenA, PENTA vaccines meant for the vaccination of our children against tuberculosis meningitis, poliomyelitis, measles, yellow fever, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Hemophilus influenza type B respectively, have all not been available in the region for administration to our children since the last 2 months.
Further checks revealed that these vaccines are equally not in stock at Zipline which serves as the last resort when the need arises.
For the Tetanus Diphtheria (TD) and Tetanus Toxoid (TT) vaccines which have been administered to pregnant women to protect them and the unborn babies from these killer diseases worldwide since the 1960s are also fast running out of stock.
These despicable situations have resulted in the non-vaccination or irregular vaccination of our children both of which compromise the immunity of these little ones against the diseases thereby exposing them to the risk of contracting the deadly diseases.
This needless development has equally forced our nursing mothers and fathers to move from one health facility to the other with the hope of finding these non-existent vaccines for the vaccination of their children.
Ladies and gentlemen, the NDC in the Upper East Region finds this development very distasteful and is gravely concerned about it considering the dangers it poses to the lives of the children and the people of the region alike.
We are particularly alarmed by recent media reports from the Northern region and other regions in northern Ghana of the outbreaks of measles and others. The reports from the media indicate that about 70 cases of measles have so far been recorded this year in the northern region (Daily Graphic, 2023 and Daily Guide Network, 2023). This obviously should be of great worry to us all considering the infectious and deadly nature of these diseases.
Our revulsion to the lukewarm attitude of this government to addressing this existential health threat is even more justified considering the fact that this government has had the most financial resources from taxes, oil revenues, loans and other sources totaling over GHs 500 billion to manage every facet of this economy including the health sector and yet, has been unable to sustain this basic primary health care program such as the acquisition and provisions of vaccines to protect our vulnerable children from the needless preventable deaths associated with the killer diseases.
Besides the non-availability of the vaccines, the health sector in the region is plagued with a lot of debilitating challenges some of which include but not limited to the following:
- Lack of dialysis center at the only referral center, the Regional hospital
- Dilapidated and not fit for purpose health infrastructure
- Abandoned CHPS centers that were started by the previous NDC government
- Inadequate doctors and skilled health personnel
- Inadequate accommodations for doctors and health personnel among others.
Ladies and gentlemen, one would have expected that our Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu whose fund raising expertise enabled him to mobilize with the speed of light an amount of GHS 105,000.00 from his team of MDCEs in the region in support of the building of a National Cathedral in fulfilment of President Akufo-Addo’s personal pledge to God, would do same in protecting the lives of the people he presides over, however, that is not the case. This can only be the posturing of a government that has no sense of compassion and love for human life.
Ladies and gentlemen, fact is, the difficulty this government faces in meeting its obligation of providing these routine vaccines is due to the current liquidity challenges which has largely been occasioned by their reckless spending and the unbridled borrowings which have largely been used to finance consumption, the creature comforts of the president and his appointees as well as the unprecedented corruption machinery of same.
DEMANDS
In view of the aforementioned and considering the seriousness of the situation, the NDC in the Upper East Region demands that the insensitive Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government takes urgent steps to have these vaccines procured and supplied to the health facilities in the region to administer forthwith without any further delay to avert any outbreak of these deadly diseases in the region.
We further demand that president Akufo-Addo cuts down drastically the wasteful expenditure of his government by reducing the size of his government, immediate suspension of the non-essential projects such as the National Cathedral project and channel the savings from these to addressing the challenges confronting the health sector and others that are begging for similar attention.
We also demand that the Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu attaches the needed sense of duty to the eminent crisis and collaborate with the relevant agencies to find the vaccines for the region.
Finally, we call on the media, civil society organizations, our revered traditional and religious leaders, and all well-meaning members of our society to rise up and put this government on its toes to act swiftly to save the collapsing health sector.
CONCLUSION
The NDC in the Upper East Region finds the crippling health sector in the region and the general neglect of the development of the region highly unconscionable and unacceptable and therefore, call on the non-performing, wasteful, talkative, arrogant and failed Akufo-Addo/Bawumia led government to rise up to the occasion and fix these challenges that are threatening the lives of the people of our region.
Thank you for your attention.
Signed,
Comrade Jonathan Abdalla Salifu.
RCO
Source : Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana
