news desk Laugh
Malaria kills one child every 30 seconds, approximately 3,000 children per day worldwide. Almost 500,000 African children under the age of five die from this disease annually. In Ghana, there were 5.7 million confirmed cases of malaria in 2021, of which 275 people died, according to Ghana’s Ministry of Health.
presence. In a statement at the launch of the campaign, Kwaku Agyeman Manu revealed that children under the age of five accounted for 1.6 million of those cases and 125 of the reported deaths.
Honorable Minister of Health. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has launched an expansion of the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Program.
presence. Ghana officially introduced the malaria vaccine into the routine immunization program on May 1, 2019 for children under the age of two, said Agyeman Manu, with the first phase of the exercise being piloted in 42 districts from seven regions across the country.
The seven implementation regions are: Ahafo, Puno, Puno East, Central, Ooty, Upper East and Volta.
“In all, there are 93 regions in the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Program (MVIP) regions, of which 42 regions are currently vaccinating, and 51 remain,” he added.
He said expansion to more areas under the MVIP is based on the recommendation of the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG), following the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to use the RTS,S malaria vaccine more widely in areas with moderate levels. to the high rate of malaria transmission.
Subscribe to Outbreak News TV on YouTube
The second phase is to expand into 51 additional provinces as a continuation of the pilot implementation.
The safe, effective and well-tolerated malaria vaccine is given to children in four doses starting at six months, then seven months, nine months and 18 months. The malaria vaccine has been administered safely alongside other routine vaccinations for more than three years now in Ghana.
He urged all caregivers and parents to take full advantage of this opportunity and ensure that their eligible children are sent to child health and nutrition clinics known as Child Welfare Clinics or CWC to be vaccinated against this deadly childhood disease.
