Stock more vaccines or risk child diseases – Ghana doctors

Ghana risks an outbreak of childhood diseases if the government does not address the current shortage of vaccines, says the Paediatric Society of Ghana.

Fifty cases of measles – a disease which can be prevented by vaccines – have been recorded in the country’s north, government data shows.

But according to the Paediatric Society of Ghana the number is higher, with 90 cases of measles recorded by their staff in one major health facility alone.

The Ghana Health Service says a lack of funds is to blame for the vaccine shortage, saying the depreciation of the local currency – the cedi – has eroded funds budgeted to buy the medicines.

Ghana’s parliament has summoned Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu and heads of other agencies over the vaccine shortage. There are concerns it could roll back the progress already made in preventing deaths of children under five in the country.

By BBC