Reporting by Najat Adam
Dr. Franklyn Asiedu Bekoe, the Director for Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, announced that the Service is in talks to secure MPOX vaccines from the Africa CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO).
During a virtual media engagement, he confirmed that plans are on track, as Ghana qualifies for the vaccines due to the current infection trend.
Currently, there are 45 reported MPOX cases across nine Ghana regions, with two individuals hospitalised.
The disease is particularly prevalent in the Greater Accra, Western North, and Western Regions, with ten cases involving children. Health authorities have stated that Ghana can receive these vaccines based on the country’s infection trends.
‘’Normally to get a clear effectiveness of vaccination, you need to identify the target group or the at risk group so what countries do is to look at the health workers as other persons considered as at risk groups like those who have multiple partners etc. the other outbreak we had, though the cases were more, we struggled to identify the at risk groups. And if you do not get a clear idea, your intervention will not be effective, he noted.
‘’We are engaging the WHO and the Africa CDC to get the vaccines. We couldn’t establish human-to-human transmission somewhere last year, so we did not qualify. Now that we have human-to-human transmission, we can identify the clear at-risk groups who will benefit from the vaccines,’’ he added.
The public is encouraged to visit the nearest clinic for testing and medical care to help stop the spread of MPOX. MPOX vaccinations are being administered in several African countries in response to the ongoing outbreak.
The nine most affected nations receiving the highest number of vaccine doses are Liberia, South Africa, Rwanda, the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
