Vaccine delivery must be timely, equitable, accessibly to vulnerable groups – Researchers
Researchers have expressed the need to engage the private sector to understand the benefits of their participation in vaccine distribution and delivery process to improve efficiency and effectiveness in order to ease the burden on the government.
They also stressed the need for a stakeholders’ meeting for deeper understanding of the government’s policy and agenda on health interventions, including vaccines delivery to improve access.
These came to light at a dissemination and validation meeting held in Accra on study titled: ‘Equitable Access to and uptake of the COVID-19 Vaccines, especially the disadvantage and vulnerable groups in Ghana.’ This was collaborative qualitative research by the African Health Economics and Policy Association (AfHEA), the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) undertaken in Accra from January, 2024 to December, 2024.
Ghana experienced some challenges in the procurement and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines, following the global outbreak of the pandemic in 2019, necessitating scientists to investigate into the issues and make recommendations to mitigate such challenges in future pandemics.
Setting the tone for the dissemination meeting, the Principal investigator, Prof. James Akazili, Dean, School of Public Health, C.K Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Navrongo, Ghana said the study adopted a qualitative research approach, using desk review and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders at the national level identified to play major roles in the COVID-19 pandemic public health preparedness and response activities, including distribution of the vaccines in the country.
“Specifically, the study assessed the pattern in access and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana, the barriers to equitable and timely access to and uptake of the vaccines and how these barriers could be mitigated,” he added
The researchers observed, among others that economic and resource constraint, health system responses and challenges, logistical challenges, geographical factors and dependence on global cooperation impeded the COVID-19 vaccine delivery in Ghana.
The researchers noted that although, Ghana subsequently received doses from AMC through GAVI, the World Bank and COVAX, the allocations were insufficient to meet the country’s needs. Thus, they recommended the need to enhance global cooperation, investment in local health infrastructure to address logistical challenges, investment in local vaccine production, expansion the use of medical drones to improve vaccine delivery and access, especially to the vulnerable groups.
Mr Dominic Anaseba, one of the researchers, said to address the vaccine hesitancy, there was the need for vigorous public health education and promotional activities to dispel factors affecting people’s decision to accept the COVID-19 vaccines using multi-sectoral approach.
Mr Anaseba emphasised on the need to strengthen education campaign on vaccine safety to convince people to accept the vaccinations as lifesaving mechanism, noting that, “Myths, socio-cultural and religious beliefs, perceptions, misinformation and disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines had the potential to derail future vaccines programmes in Ghana and set aside the gains made in the last two decades.”
Touching on vaccine hesitancy in Ghana, Mr Anaseba disclosed that the highest hesitancy rate reported was 68.57 per cent among the literate female, while the lowest rate reported was 14.9 per cent among healthcare workers. He said the literature revealed that Ghana’s vaccination rate lagged significantly with only 2-3 per cent of the population vaccinated by October 2021, and 28.3 per cent by late 2022, “reflecting the broader trend on low coverage.”
Another researcher, Dr Samuel T. Chato, a Senior Research Fellow at the Navrongo Health Research Centre, stated that the views shared by stakeholders suggested that the demand for the COVID-19 vaccines was related to the risk perception people had about the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the demand for vaccines was high when the risk perception of contracting the disease was high and vice versa.
Dr Chato said the initial distribution plan was that high risks persons such as front-line health workers, vulnerable groups such as the aged and prisoners were prioritised because of limited supplies.
He said though, some stakeholders reported that the distribution strategy was adopted to ensure fair and timely access to the COVID-19 vaccines, others perceived that there were issues in the COVID-19 vaccine delivery process in Ghana.
The key challenges observed in the COVID-19 vaccines distribution process were inadequate supply of vaccines due to the inability of government to procure them, inadequate equipment and logistics such as storage facilities and cold chain vans to transport the vaccines, health staff fatigue, resulting from workload and vaccine developers in advanced countries prioritising their own countries leading to non-availability of COVID-19 vaccines, especially in Africa were reported.
Moreover, Dr Chato expressed the need for the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service to strengthen existing vaccine distribution structures, and government providing financial support to facilitate stakeholder retreats and engagement, especially the private sector could enhance vaccine delivery in Ghana in order to ensure equitable access, especially during health emergencies.
Participants agreed that it was an important study particularly on lessons for future pandemic and urged the researcher to look at the same issues but from the lower cadre of the distribution chain to also get their perspectives.
Concluding the stakeholder dissemination and validation exercise, Prof. Akazili thanked the participants and called for continued engagement to ensure a buy-in of policy makers to improve vaccine delivery mechanisms which will culminate in better access and uptake in the country.
BY TIMES REPORTER
