The “Mass Vaccination Plan for VPD Outbreaks”, seeks to among others consolidate all efforts needed to contain an outbreak, clearly defining the roles and responsibili­ties of all stakeholders for effective response.

Ultimately, it aims at reducing morbidity, mortality, and disability associated with VPDs by providing high-quality immunisation services to protect lives.

The Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, launched the plan which coincided with the end of the COVID-19 In­ternational Vaccine Implementation and Evaluation (CIVIE) project, a four-year programme, which supported countries to effectively introduce, deploy, manage and eval­uate COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr Asiedu-Bekoe said the mass vaccination plan was timely to provide clear actionable steps of en­suring equitable access to vaccines, efficient data management, capacity building and improve risk commu­nication to effectively respond to outbreaks while minimising disrup­tions to routine immunisation and other health sector activities.

He said in view of the often threatening nature of VPDs, im­pacting not only the population but disrupting healthcare systems and depleting national coffers, vaccina­tion remained of the most powerful public health tools to reduce the risks.

“In Ghana, diseases such as mea­sles, polio, whooping cough, tetanus and yellow fever previously claimed the lives of children in alarming proportions and left others with permanent disabilities.

We need to look back in histo­ry to understand the devastation caused by vaccine-preventable diseases so we can understand and appreciate how far we have come and the new direction we are mov­ing into,” he said.

The Director, Public Health, not­ed that the success of the plan was based on collective efforts; public health officials, healthcare workers, community leaders, policy makers and all members of the public.

“Each of us has a role to play to ensure that diseases which are pre­ventable through vaccines remain a thing of the past,” Dr Asiedu-Be­koe stated.

Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, the Programme Manager for the Expanded Programme on Immuni­sation (EPI) at GHS, explained that the new plan was developed based on lessons learned from previous mass vaccination campaigns in re­sponse to VPD outbreaks, particu­larly, the COVID-19 outbreak.

He said that the vision of the mass vaccination plan aligned with the national health policy’s goal of achieving a healthy population for national development by providing high-quality immunisation services.

“The plan is anchored on the principles of equity, integration, inclusivity, sustainability, account­ability, and community engagement and ownership,” he shared.

For his part, the Deputy Director of Disease Surveillance, GHS, Dr Dennis Laryea, expressed optimism that healthcare workers and other stakeholders would find the plan useful.