They said they considered this a national duty and their contribution to keeping their neighbours and friends safe from the disease as well as ensuring that they (neighbours and friends) did not suffer what befell them in October, last year when the disease broke out in their community.

 

A visit to this community showed that the yellow card given to those vaccinated against the yellow fever disease, was now a form of an identity card as most residents proudly displayed it to show their vaccination status.

 

This came to light when a team of officials from the West Gonja Municipal Directorate of Health and United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) visited the area, a nomadic community, to learn about how residents were doing after taking part in the first phase of the yellow fever vaccination campaign in December, 2021.

 

Madam Amina Salifu, a 35-year-old resident, whose four-year-old daughter recovered from the yellow fever disease at the West Gonja Municipal Hospital, said the about four weeks that her daughter spent at the hospital being treated for the disease were very distressful moments for her family.

 

She thanked God for saving her daughter and expressed gratitude to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and partners including the UNICEF for their support to vaccinate all qualified residents of the area (Kojokura).

 

Mr Osman Abu, an opinion leader at Kojokura said “We do not want yellow fever in our community again. We have all embraced the yellow fever vaccine and we have been vaccinated. Now, when anybody comes to our community and he or she is not vaccinated, we direct and lead him or her to go for the vaccine.”

 

Mr Adamu Musah, a resident said he and his wife and children took the yellow fever vaccine adding “We feel good. The vaccine is safe. Everybody should go for it.”

 

Miss Gertrude Yentumi, West Gonja Municipal Director of Health said the outbreak in the Municipality in October, 2021 was devastating as 18 lives were lost in the Municipality alone hence “We want to do everything to ensure that it does not happen again.”

 

Miss Yentumi praised the residents of Kojokura for embracing the vaccine as well as supporting efforts to vaccinate others, who were yet to be reached.

 

Mr Bhanu Pathak, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Tamale was happy that nomadic communities were reached as part of the vaccination campaign adding it was also encouraging that since the vaccination in the community, no new cases of the disease were recorded in the area.

 

Meanwhile, the GHS with support from partners including the UNICEF on Saturday, February 26, began the second phase of the yellow fever vaccination campaign across 28 districts in nine regions of the country where suspected cases of the disease have been recorded.

 

As part of the five day-long campaign, which ends on March 02, persons aged nine months old to 60 years old (with the exception of pregnant women) are being injected with the yellow fever vaccine to keep them safe from the disease.

 

The regions include Savannah, Ashanti, Greater Accra, Oti, Northern, Upper West, Bono, and Bono East.

 

After the first phase of the vaccination campaign, it was realised that pockets of the disease still existed, and some new communities also started recording cases hence the second phase of the vaccination campaign.

 

Yellow fever is a disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito, and the infection can cause serious illness and death.

 

Symptoms include fever, yellowing of the eyes, dark urine, bleeding (from the nose, ear, mouth and other parts of the body), chills, general body aches, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, and weakness, shock and failure of many organs.

 

In October, 2021 the Savannah Region reported suspected cases of yellow fever, and the cases were confirmed positive for yellow fever by the National Public Health Reference Laboratory and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.

 

Samples sent to Institut Pasteur Dakar (IPD) were also confirmed positive for yellow fever.

 

The outbreak is now widespread, with 13 out of 16 regions of the country including Savannah, Upper West, Bono and Bono East confirming cases and over 40 people dying from the disease.

 

As at February 22, 2021 the total suspected cases of the disease stood at 852, confirmed cases by immunoglobulin stood at 137, and confirmed cases by PCR from IPD (Dakar) stood at 70.

 

UNICEF, a partner in the vaccination campaign, has deployed four teams to the Savannah, Upper West, Bono and Bono East Regions to monitor the exercise.

 

The UNICEF is working with the GHS Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) providing technical assistance and financial support to help build the capacity of health staff, provide the needed vaccines and logistics and also support the EPI in community mobilisation and sensitisation efforts.

 

Additionally, UNICEF is providing technical assistance during the vaccination campaign and working with the GHS to strengthen cold chain systems in diverse ways including the supply of ultra-low temperature fridges to the GHS.