Integrated Child Health Campaign to start

Accra, Oct. 25, GNA - An Integrated Child Health Campaign aimed at reducing under-five mortality rate by two-thirds by the year 2015 is expected to start from November 2006. The five-day campaign, combining measles and polio immunisation, administering of vitamin A and distributing 2.1 million free Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) to children under-two is expected to boost the survival of millions of children.

It would also involve the mobilisation by every District Assembly, an inter-ministerial response; support from faith-based organisations and campaign visits and other initiatives by development partners and Ambassadors.

At a press briefing in Accra, the Acting Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr George Amofa said one of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals was to reduce under-five mortality from 132 per 1,000 births to 42 per 1,000 birth by 2015 and expressed the hope that the campaign would impact positively on the reduction of under-five mortality.

He said it was gratifying to note that there had not been any reported death due to measles since 2003.This was made possible after a successful mass immunization campaign in 2002. Dr Amofa noted that this was the first time the country was embarking on a nationwide distribution of free ITNs to all children under two and warned against the temptation of diverting them. He said the nets were specially branded and not for sale. "Our teams will be looking out in the market and stores during and after the campaign for offenders for prosecution.=94 He said the campaign presented an enormous challenge but also an opportunity to improve the health and well being of children. In a presentation delivered on behalf of Dr Constance Bart-Plange, Malaria Control Programme Manager, she said the disease was still the leading cause of death in the country despite various interventions put in place from the 1950s.

She expressed the hope that the distribution of the free nets, the most effective, efficient and cost effective method of controlling malaria would be expected to cover 80 per cent of the target group. The 'not for sale nets, she noted was deep blue in colour whiles the ones on the market were light blue.

The nets can survive 20 washings and expire after fours years. Dr Kwadwo Antwi Agyei, Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, said there would be fixed points for parents to send their children while mobile vans would stop at specific points like schools to ensure that children in the out-of-reach areas were not left out. Dr Antwi Agyei said there would be 9,050 immunisation points, 9,505 vaccinators, and 28,514 volunteers to ensure that all the children were covered.

The campaign, he said, was expected to target about 5.959 million children from 0 months to 59 months for polio and about 5.065 million children from nine months to 59 months for measles and would cost about 162 billion cedis. He urged parents to be truthful about the ages of children saying: "The ages of the children would determine the services each child gets.=94