<<Print>>

About 656 children in the Gomoa West district of the central region of Ghana have completed all four doses of the malaria vaccine since the implementation of the malaria vaccination in 2019.

Gomoa west district is one of the 42 selected areas with the pilot implementation exercise in the central region amidst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Denis Na-Ebong Soorimwin, Gomoa west district director of Ghana health service in an interview disclosed that the malaria vaccine in the district is so far not up to their expectation, because they want all eligible children in district to be vaccinated,, so the children will be protected against malaria.

He explained, at the beginning mothers were very hesitant and reluctant about taking the malaria vaccine which resulted in low rate of coverage during the implementation stage, adding "but we continued to educate them on the need for the child to be vaccinated and this as a result improved the coverage as time went by.

Dr Soorimwin emphasized that they're using all the available means to get all those children to be vaccinated.

Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Soorimwin indicates so far there hasn't been any challenge due to the Covid-19, saying mothers bring their children to be vaccinated with the malaria vaccine amid the covid-19 pandemic.

He therefore indicated that the overall uptake of vaccination in the facilities in 2020 last year, the first dose of the vaccine was around 77%, second dose 66.8%, and the third dose was about 65.6%.

He said, as at 2021, this year, the first dose of the vaccination so far is around 15.9%, second dose 15.8% and the third dose is 17%.

"In Gomoa West the malaria vaccine implementation is going on as expected, so far so good in terms of its implementation", Dr Soorimwin assured.

The implementation of the malaria vaccine is currently underway in three selected countries that's Ghana, Kenya and Malawi and is expected to cover at least 600,000 children who would have received the first dose of the malaria vaccine by the World Malaria Day, which coincides with the African vaccination week.

In Ghana, the vaccination is being provided through the routine system in some 42 districts in seven region, given some eligible children in Ghana have begun receiving their fourth and final dose of the vaccine.