Children are a joy to raise - from pregnancy to childbirth through nurturing the child into adulthood, albeit the stress that comes with the difficulties along the journey. No mother, father or guardian enjoys having to care for a sick child. 

However, some parents and guardians do not realise that their actions may be lead to trouble for their children. Babies receive some immunization at birth and they must continue to receive immunization for at least, the next 18 months, but this is not adhered to.

Each year, since 1978, Ghana’s Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) services has reached millions of children, protecting them from a number of vaccine preventable diseases. Currently, there are vaccines against 13 childhood killer diseases including a second dose of Measles-Rubella and Meningitis A. Research, however, shows that 9 out of 10 children receive the first dose of the measles-rubella vaccine but only 6 out of 10 children receive the second dose and are therefore, not fully protected. They also miss out on the Menigitis A vaccine that was introduced in November 2016, which is given at the same time as the second dose of the measles-rubella vaccine.

A campaign to raise awareness on the second dose of these vaccines as well as other vaccines was launched on Wednesday, 30^th August, 2017 at the Osu Presbyterian Church. 

Launching the campaign, the Deputy Minister of Health, Mad. Tina Mensah said that since 2003 and 2008, no childhood death had been recorded in Measles and Polio, respectively.  She stated that it was unacceptable for any child to die from any of the 13 childhood diseases since the immunization was provided free-of-charge.  She called on all educational institutions for children to collaborate in this endeavor to rid our nation of these preventable diseases.

In a welcome address, the Deputy Director General of the GHS, Dr Gloria Quansah-Asare, reminded parents to continue attending weighing sessions until the children turned 5. She said that the project whose campaign was being launched, included child welfare services such as malaria prevention through the provision of Long Lasting Insecticide Nets, Vitamin A supplementation, growth promotion and other nutritional interventions all free-of-charge.

A representative from UNICEF, Sarah Hague, called on nurses, local communication groups and whatever media was available to get the message to the people because parents were simply not aware of the benefits of immunization.

The programme was chaired by the Paramount Chief and President of the Osu Traditional Council, Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI. He appealed to the Queen mothers and other groupings to go into the communities and educate the people on the importance of immunization.  He said that it is only when we work together, that we can completely eradicate these diseases.

The campaign is a collaboration between the Ghana Health Services, the Ghana Red Cross Society, UNICEF, WHO, Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, Mullen Lowe and other local partners with the Centre for Disease Control through the Global Health Security Agenda offering technical and financial support.

The campaign involves the mass media, various community engagement interventions as well as door-to-door activities under the campaign theme: ‘Go the Full Circle – from start to finish’. Parents and caregivers will be encouraged to make sure that their children receive the full compliment of vaccines on time by age 2.