Close to 5.3 million children under the age of five are expected to be vaccinated against measles-rubella in an upcoming mass vaccination exercise by the Ghana Health Service, scheduled to take place from October 2, 2024, to October 6, 2024, following a recent outbreak of the disease across the country, according to a report by 3news.com.

The report added that approximately six hundred thousand children aged between 9 months and 5 years missed the last mop-up vaccination exercise held in 2018, while some are due for their first and second doses of the vaccine.

A health educator at the LEKMA Polyclinic, Rebecca Avornyo, has urged parents and guardians to take vaccination seriously.

She noted that some mothers fail to attend routine immunisation appointments and only rush to the clinic when they notice rashes on their babies' skin.

"Measles is among the childhood killer diseases, and the good thing is that it can be prevented with vaccination, so why don’t you make the babies available? The men should please get involved. Help the mothers to remember their routine dates. It’s almost the same as last week. Yes, that was Friday. We have a mother around who was just scared because she saw some rashes. So, she has a little knowledge.

“I’m sure she was thinking it could be measles. So she came to us. So, when we assess, we notice that, no, it’s not measles. But this same mother has been given a date to come to the child welfare clinic a month before she didn’t come, and when she saw the son before, she rushed here. So, what we are having is that it’s an issue that most mothers are not helping us to close the gap,” she is quoted to have said.

According to the World Health Organisation,(WHO) measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. It spreads easily when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes. It can cause severe disease, complications, and even death.

Although it can affect anyone, it is most common in children. It infects the respiratory tract and spreads throughout the body.

Some symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose, and a rash all over the body.

Being vaccinated is the best way to prevent getting sick with measles or spreading it to other people. The vaccine is safe and helps your body fight off the virus.

JKB/ ADG

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