Cervical cancer vaccination to be part of routine vaccination in Ghana

Cervical cancer (human Papillomavirus HPV) vaccination is to be mainstream into the routine vaccination programmes in Ghana to make it accessible to all women and girls from the appropriate age.

Dr Naziru Tanko Mohammed, Deputy Programmes Manager, Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) in a presentation at a Media engagement on Vaccine uptake in Ghana said plans were afoot to roll it out by close of the year.

Cervical cancer is the second most common female cancer among women between the ages of 15 to 44 years and has a high prevalence rate in Ghana and reports show that over 57 percent of Ghanaian women visiting Korle-Bu teaching hospital had cervical cancer.

According to the Global cancer observatory, cervical cancer was the third highest in cancers in 2020., recording the second highest number of new cases after breast cancer in Ghana.

The Cost of a single cervical cancer dose vaccination ranged from Gh250 to Gh500 in public. hospitals and between Gh1000 and Gh1,500 in private hospitals, slowing down coverage of vaccination of the disease.

He said globally vaccinations had proved to be one of the surest and safest ways to prevent complications and fatalities of many diseases citing the successes in the routine vaccinations of the childhood killer diseases in Ghana.

“Vaccines are not theories; they actually work to prevent many diseases and fatalities and has been helpful in eliminating most childhood diseases in children under five years and therefore we must take all vaccinations seriously to enhance our health” Journey.

Dr Mohammed was making a presentation on Ghana’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation: “The Journey So far” at a two-day training workshop for journalists on Uptake of Vaccines in Ghana.

Organized by the Africa Media and Malaria Research (AMMREN) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) it was to improve journalists understanding on vaccines and how they work.

Dr Charity Binka, Executive Secretary, AMMREN, noted that vaccines had saved many lives, yet myths, misinformation and disinformation were creating barriers for the public to fully accept vaccinations “That is why the media has a critical role to play in educating the public on the vaccine uptake in Ghana.”

She said participants at the workshop had been carefully selected from across all the 16 regions in Ghana to churn out well-informed and fact-based education to the public using their varied mediums to demystify vaccines and improve vaccination coverage.

Dr Binka mentioned that vaccines had proved to be a way to go in preventing many diseases and fatalities mentioning the COVID-19 vaccines and the malaria vaccines which had saved many lives and charged the journalists to set the agenda on vaccinations and immunizations to educate the public.

“Take charge of this campaign because people take what the media says seriously and as the gospel truth,” she added.