‘Take your children for measles-rubella vaccination’

The Deputy Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), Mr Ebo Dadzie has encouraged mothers to send their children between the ages of nine months and five years to be immunised against measles and rubella.

He said the vaccine was safe and effective and it was important for children to receive it to prevent them from dying from measles and rubella.

This year’s nationwide immunisation campaign against measles-rubella, which takes place from October 17 to 22 and targets approximately five million children, will also include the administration of Vitamin A.

Mr Dadzie said the campaign would be in schools, communities and all hospitals and clinics across the country and called on mothers and caregivers to look out for vaccination posts in their communities.

He said the measles-rubella vaccine was introduced in 2013 and since then the cases of measles in the country have gone down, adding that since 2003, there has been no death recorded resulting from measles.

He said there had been serious measles outbreaks in the sub-region but Ghana had only a few cases of measles because of the high coverage of the campaign.
He said it was important to maintain the high coverage to provide maximum protection for children.

Mr Dadzie explained that the country was working towards the elimination of measles and the campaign was to strengthen efforts towards that.