New CSM vaccine to be tested in Ghana

A new and efficacious Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis (CSM) vaccine is to be pilot tested in Ghana before the end of the year.

It is to help to deal with the disease associated with fatalities, Dr George Amofa, Director of the Public Health Division of the Ghana Health Service, told the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday.

CSM, a contagious infection of the coverings of the brain, is common in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions and usually occurs in epidemic proportions during the hot season.

Dr Amofa described CSM as one of the current challenges facing the public health service.

He said the vaccine being used in the country had a weak efficacious content hampering effective control of the disease adding that an international initiative was, therefore, in place to introduce a better vaccine.

Dr Amofa also spoke about other challenges to public health delivery saying the upsurge of tuberculosis due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic was another big challenge in public health delivery.

He said some successes had been achieved in the sector, especially in terms of the control of some child health diseases such as polio and measles with tetanus among newborn babies almost near the elimination stages in the country.

Dr Amofa, a Public Health Specialist, said various surveillance and response structures had been established from the community, sub-district, district through regional to national levels.

This includes the recruitment of community-based surveillance volunteers as first line workers equipped with registers to report weekly on diseases and other occurrences.

He said there was collation of data and a quarterly review at regional levels to assess the disease situation in the country.

Dr Amofa said all the regions had been hooked via Internet to the National Integrated Surveillance System Headquarters at the Disease Control Unit in Accra to ensure monitoring and response of any public health crisis.

Dr Amofa said the World Health Organisation had a headquarters for disease surveillance at Burkina Faso for the prevention and control of public health crisis and epidemics at national and sub-regional frontiers.