The Ashanti Regional Health Directorate is targeting to vaccinate 440,981 residents in five districts against Yellow Fever as it prepares to roll out the mass preventive vaccination campaign from November 12 to November 18.

The exercise which would be conducted in the Ejisu, Juaben, Sekyere Afram Plains, Sekyere Kumawu Districts and the Asokore Mampong Municipality would cover people between the ages of 10 to 60.

Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang, the Regional Director of Health Services who announced this at a media launch of the campaign in Kumasi, urged eligible residents in the five districts to avail themselves of the all-important exercise.

He said 630 teams, 1,260 volunteers, 630 vaccinators and 105 supervisors would be deployed at various immunization posts that would be set up in communities, health centres and hospitals.

Ghana, he said, was endemic to Yellow Fever and until recently the country continued to record cases almost every year.

“These are interspersed with focal outbreaks in spite of high routine infant immunization coverage and selective mass campaigns,” he pointed out.

He said the new global strategy for the elimination of Yellow Fever Epidemics was aimed at protecting the risk population, preventing international spread and containing outbreaks rapidly.

Dr. Tinkorang explained that Yellow Fever was an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes and that 85 per cent of patients may be asymptomatic, 15 percent affected severely with fatality up to 50 per cent.

He entreated the public to report any adverse reaction to the nearest health facility and assured that all the vaccination teams would be provided with face masks and alcohol-based hand sanitizers to ensure the safety of the public from COVID-19.

He said the vaccine was free, safe and gave protection for life and stressed the need for people who visited the vaccination posts to observe all the COVID-19 safety protocols.