The Ministry of Health in Ghana has introduced two vaccines to the national immunization program. The two new vaccines are the pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines, which are preventative against pneumonia and diarrhea, respectively.
According to Dr Kwadwo Odei Antwi-Agyei, the Program Manager of the National Expanded Program on Immunization, “this represents an important advancement for public health in Ghana because children under five…are the most vulnerable to the disease.”
Dr Antwi-Agyei also explained why these two vaccines in particular are so important for children. Rotavirus is responsible for over 400,000 deaths in children under five each year and 1.4 million children under five die from pneumococcal diseases worldwide. Particularly in Ghana, diarrheal diseases rank among the top three causes of death in children under five.
The vaccines have been donated to Ghana by an international nonprofit and are a great step forward in reducing childhood mortality.
See the article here: http://www.moh-ghana.org/otherpages.aspx?id=3