Meningitis Vaccines In(March 3, 2010, Back Page)

Vaccines needed to combat the Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) outbreak in the northern part of the country, W315, has arrived in Accra from the World Health Organisation (WHO).Upon arrival yesterday, the vaccines were immediately airlifted to the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions for vaccination to begin.Health Minister, Dr Benjamin Kunbour, who has been touring the affected areas, told the media that with the arrival of the vaccines, the situation was under control and advised people not to panic.Accompanied by Mr Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister; Dr John Koku Awoonor-Williams, Regional Director of Health Services, and other officials of the Regional Health Directorate, Dr Kunbour said, “Our tour of the region has not shown any evidence of people just walking and dying as sections of the media have tried to portray.”Dr Kunbour said CSM was not a new disease as some people perceived it to be because clinical studies showed it had been with the people for years, adding that the Ministry of Health (MoH) had since November, 2009 been anticipating some aspects of the situation.He said that explained the speed with which a team of experts from the national and regional levels, with the support of their international agencies, had responded rapidly to reduce the effect of the outbreak.The health minister gave the assurance that the government would do all it could to ensure that the needed quantity of vaccines were brought in to bring the situation under control.Dr Awoonor-Williams announced that 94 meningitis cases had been recorded in the region as of February 28, 2010, adding that of the 94 cases, 20 of them were confirmed to be meningitis W135. He also confirmed that 13 deaths had been recorded.According to Dr Awoonor-Williams, the MoH had supplied 100,000 doses of the vaccines for distribution to the nine districts in the Upper East Region.These vaccines, he indicated, had been distributed to high-risk areas, explaining that 200 doses of the vaccines had been distributed to the prisons in Navrongo and another 300 for personnel of the security agencies on peace-keeping mission in Bawku.He indicated that the number of vaccines was inadequate relative to the over one million people in the region and called for more vaccines to be distributed.