At the campaign launch, “The Second Year of Life (2YL),” in Accra on the theme: “Go the Full Circle; From start to finish”, the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Gloria Quansah-Asare, said the project was aimed at protecting children against all vaccine preventable diseases.

2YL Campaign

She said the campaign was being launched to attract the attention of the public, especially parents and caregivers of children under five years, to continue attending their weighing sessions till they turned five years.

“This will ensure that children receive all their immunisations and all additional welfare services to keep them strong and healthy,” she said.

Dr Quansah-Asare noted that the 2YL platform offered another opportunity to children who could not be vaccinated for some reason during their first year of life.

She said the 2YL included other child welfare services such as malaria prevention through provision of insecticide nets, Vitamin A supplementation, growth promotion and other nutritional interventions.

“This platform of services is completely free and it is therefore necessary to educate the general public on this essential package of health interventions available to every Ghanaian child during their second year of life,” Dr Quansah-Asare noted.

The deputy director also disclosed that through the concerted efforts of the government and the international community, substantial resources had been mobilised and spent on vaccine preventable diseases.

She, however, said there were still a number of children who were not vaccinated or under vaccinated, and that the accumulated number of those unvaccinated children could cause outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases, hence the social mobilisation and demand to kick off the campaign should serve as a mark of the commitment of all and sundry to help solve the problem.

Government’s support

In a speech read on behalf of the Health Minister, Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, he said the utilisation of immunisation services dipped after the child turned one year, adding that caregivers as well as healthcare workers often did not view immunisation services beyond age one as a priority.

He therefore said the ministry had put certain measures and objectives in place to strengthen the 2YL platform such as: the increased coverage of Second Dose Measles-Containing Vaccine (MCV2), facilitating rapid uptake of the recently introduced meningitis vaccine and also increased equity in immunisation coverage across the country among other factors.

The minister pledged the support of the government to the immunisation programme and all other child health programmes and also commended the health workers and stakeholders, calling on them to participate actively at both the regional and district levels.