Ghana runs out of polio, measles vaccine

The Director-General at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare said the country owed the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the international body that procures the vaccine across the globe, huge sums of money.

The vaccines are given to newborn babies to fight the deadly childhood disease, but for some time now nursing mothers are being turned away when they want to have their babies vaccinated due to the shortage.

Dr Asare said that the country will, however, receive supplies of the vaccines soon because almost $10 million has been paid to UNICEF for the procurement of the vaccines.

“The fact is that we get the polio vaccines procured for us through UNICEF. There was an outstanding bill from last year which was not paid. God being so good, just this week we have managed to clear that bill and as we speak now they will be airlifting the polio vaccine to the country.”

“The one that we are transferring is about 10 million dollars which we are going to use to get all the consignment we need for the next year or so and we will then schedule and clear all the outstanding bills,” he added.

Touching on whether the shortages could pose health risks to babies and infants who needed them most, Dr. Asare said that his outfit has put in place measures to mitigate such issues.

“What we are doing to mitigate it is that we call other districts and regions where they have stock then we forward to places where the stock had gone low. So a day or two difference will not make much difference so we will sort it out I’m sure by the close of the week,” he said.

Polio (poliomyelitis) is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus and it mainly affects children under 5 years of age.

It invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours.

Ghana often receives vaccine supply that could last for about a year from UNICEF.

But Dr Asare said that the country would have to clear outstanding debts before receiving new consignment.

“We have yearly consumption but the problem was that we pay for the previous year’s outstanding bills and then also this year’s bills. It comes to the Central cold home at Korle Bu and we also send it to the regional centres and they are also send it to the various districts. When I checked up the money has been released. Immediately the money has been transferred which we got a copy of the transfer yesterday, they will release the vaccines,” he explained.