Childhood Vaccines are free, don’t buy them – GHS to caregivers

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye has said the vaccines for children are free hence, caregivers should not make any payment.

He entreated all, not to rush for the vaccines after the arrival since the Ministry of Health has made adequate provisions for vaccines for the rest of the year and beyond.

“We want to take this opportunity to advise the public against buying of these vaccines.

“The vaccines are free and can be obtained in designated health facilities and all Child Welfare Clinics across the country,” a statement issued by Dr Kuma-Aboagye said.

The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service took delivery of the first consignment of vaccines for Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), Measles-Rubella (MR), and Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) on Saturday, March 11.

This came days after the sector minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu assured the nation on the floor of Parliament that the vaccines were going to arrive soon.

“Mr Speaker, it is a very serious public interest issue, the assurance I will give and I can give for the first time in the chamber here is that this will not happen again,” the Dormaa Central Member said on Friday, March 10.

“I will advise that you will help me in my advocacy to get adequate funding for vaccines, even the health insurance budget. So when we meet with committees, they have always been talking about it, and even in the chamber, it has come up that if Parliament approves adequately for us and we always have our budget well we will be able to supply. I assure you that whatever challenges happened I don’t think we are going to face these challenges any longer.

“I can stand here and assure the House that within two weeks or three weeks we will get vaccines, even probably before that. I can’t get my hands on a specific date but probably even before that, we may get the vaccines that we are talking about. Throughout the period we have made 6.4million dollars equivalent to UNICEF who supplies us the vaccines.”

On Saturday, March 11, the Director-General of the Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, was on the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), leading the delegation to welcome in the consignment.