214, 494 persons to be vaccinated against yellow fever in UWR

Wa, Nov. 22, GNA – Health workers in the Upper West Region are preparing to embark on a yellow fever vaccination campaign in three of its nine districts that had recorded six cases of the disease.

About 214, 494 persons, especially one-year old children, would be vaccinated with 248,000 doses of yellow fever vaccines allocated to the region within one week, Dr. Kofi Issah, Deputy Director of Public Health, has said.

Dr. Issah was briefing members of the Upper West Regional Epidemic Preparedness Committee on the yellow fever situation in region at a meeting in Wa on Monday.

He said Wa East District has been the worst hit, recording four cases with one death, while Jirapa and Nadowli Districts also recorded a case each.

It is expected that 61,127 persons would vaccinated in Jirapa District, 61,219 persons in Wa East District and 92,598 persons in the Nadowli District.

The campaign would involve 276 health staff and 32 supervisors and would cost the Health Directorate 110,106.00 Ghana cedis, Dr. Issah said.

He said about 90 per cent of the targeted population would be vaccinated against the disease and that district and sub-district teams had been trained in vaccination and other aspects of the exercise to be carried out on November 22.

Dr. Issah said the region would receive 340,000 mosquito nets in February next year under the Malaria Control Programme and would be distributed in the nine districts of the region to help reduce malaria.

Three districts, namely Wa Muncipal, Wa East and Wa WestdDistricts would however benefit from Ashanti Gold five-year sustained indoor residual spraying programme to reduce the population of mosquitoes.

The Upper West Regional Directorate of Ghana Health Service in collaboration with the Ashanti Gold would implement the programme.