A total number of 303,327 persons between the ages of 10 to 60 years in the Upper East Region are expected to receive the life time Yellow Fever vaccination aimed at protecting them against the disease.
The five districts including the Kassena-Nankana Municipal, Bongo, Talensi, Nabdam and the Kassena-Nankana West Districts are to receive the vaccination beginning from November 28 to December 4, 2018.
Dr Winfred Ofosu, the Upper East Regional Director of Ghana Health Service, said this at the launch of the Life Time Yellow Fever Vaccination at Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana Municipal of the Upper East Region.
Dr Ofosu said about 325 teams including health workers and volunteers had been trained to effectively execute the vaccination exercise and mobile teams would be stationed at various communities and schools, while fixed teams would be stationed at various service delivery points in the health facilities.
Yellow Fever is an infectious disease caused by a virus, which is transmitted to humans by the bites of infected aedes mosquitoes that breed around houses, in the forest, or jungles.
Dr Ofosu said once a person contracts the disease, the yellow fever virus incubates in the body for three to six days and many people did not experience symptoms until it breaks out.
The common symptoms include fever, muscle pain, prominent backaches, loss of appetite and nausea or vomiting among others.
An estimated annual burden of 51,000 to 380,000 severe cases occurs in Africa, while about 19,000 to 180,000 deaths have been recorded within the last three years globally.
He called on community members to appreciate the need to fight the menace by spreading the vaccination message so as to inform others to get vaccinated to avoid an epidemic in the Region.
Madam Paulina Abayage, the Upper East Regional Minister, said government would not relent its efforts at expanding immunization services and mass vaccination campaigns to eliminate communicable disease in the Region and the country at large.
She said government was investing in health research to produce the needed vaccinations to improve on the health of infants as well as the general population.
She called on the traditional authorities to encourage their people and mobilize them for the vaccination sessions and urged civil society organizations to assist in educating them on the symptoms and prevention mechanisms.
