P
The
Upper East Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has dispelled
rumours that the Directorate has teamed up with the Ghana Education Service (GES)
to kill some school children by giving them vaccination to reduce the
population of the Free Senior High School and the Ghana School Feeding
Programme.
The rumours making rounds in some of the communities in the region had led to many school pupils refusing to attend school with the fear that they could be killed by being vaccinated.
But at a press conference held here last Thursday, the Regional Director of the GHS, Dr. Winfred Ofosu with some senior management of the Service including some senior staff of the GES and Food and Drug Board Authority (FDA) refuted the speculation.
The Regional Director, who stated that there had not been any new vaccine immunisation of school pupils, explained that what is being carried out by health staff in the schools was mop up exercise of the last vaccination and the distribution of mosquito nets to the school pupils.
The Regional Director who stressed unequivocally that the GHS does not have any school-based vaccination programme to kill children, pointed out that by the GHS professional training, all health workers are under oath to save lives and as such it would be unthinkable to contemplate on such negative action.
“This is an unfortunate situation and we need our children to get back into the classroom so they can receive the needed education to take over the positions some of us are occupying today in future.”
Dr Ofosu, therefore, used the platform to assure all parents and caregivers in all the communities in the region to make sure that all their children are sent back to school.
In another development the Regional Director used the occasion to brief the media about the “mosquirex,” a new malaria vaccine that was launched nationally on April 30, 2019 after it had been approved by Parliament and Cabinet to be piloted in some regions.
He indicated that despite the rumours the new programme which is being piloted in communities in the Kassena-Nankana Municipal and the Kassena-Nankana West District was receiving much attention and mentioned that a total of 649 made up of 404 children in the Kassena-Nankana Municipal and the 215 in the Kassena-Nankana West District had received the vaccines.
The Regional Director explained that it was not for nothing that the World Health Organisation in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the GHS periodically continue to come out with new vaccines against maternal and infant mortality.
He stated through the embracement of such concepts Ghana as a country has been able to fight against diseases such smallpox, polio, measles among others and entreated all Ghanaians especially parents to always embrace new innovations.
The Regional Director attributed the resurfacing of measles in some parts of the United States to some parents’ failure to accept the vaccines to be administered on their children at that period and impressed on parents to take a cue from that.
The Public Relations Officer of the GES, Mr Zakari Abdul, who jointly rubbished the rumours, stated that nothing of such a thing was going on and called on the Parent Teacher Association to help educate parents and care givers to ensure that their children returned to school.
FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, BOLGATANGA
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