Ghana observes vaccination, immunization weeks from May 4 to 9

Ghana will celebrate this year’s African Vaccination and World Immunization Week from May 4 to 9, 2024.

African Vaccination Week is an annual event celebrated in the last week of April, in sync with other World Health Organization (WHO) regions and World Immunization Week (WIW).

It is led and coordinated by the WHO Regional Office for Africa with the aim of strengthening immunization programs by raising awareness of the importance of the need and right of every human being to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases, especially for children and women.

The WIW is an international health event usually held from April 24 to 30. The aim is to increase vaccination rates and protect people of all ages against infectious diseases.

The global immunization campaigns of the second half of the 20th century are among humanity’s greatest achievements: defeating polio, eradicating smallpox and ensuring more children survive and thrive.


In 2024, the WHO Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) will commemorate its 50th anniversary with the theme: ‘Safeguarding Our Future: Humanly Possible.’

Dr. Naziru Tanko, Deputy Program Manager of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), during a media engagement on vaccine acceptance in Accra, noted that a new WHO report shows that an estimated 51.2 million lives have been saved by vaccines in the African region. the past 50 years.

“For every child’s life saved during that period, almost 60 years are lived,” he said.

“These results have been possible under the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), a WHO initiative launched in 1974 as a global effort to ensure equitable access to lifesaving vaccines for every child, regardless of their geographic location or socioeconomic status .”

The report, which assesses the life-saving impact of vaccines, was released on Wednesday at the start of this year’s African Vaccination Week and World Immunization Week. With the continued support of WHO, UNICEF and Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance), a public-private global health partnership aiming to increase access to immunization in poor countries, most countries in the region are providing antigens for 13 vaccine preventable diseases. an increase from the first six when the EPI was introduced.

The report notes notable results, including a reduction in measles deaths, with an estimated 19.5 million deaths prevented over the past 22 years.

The region has also witnessed a sharp decline in meningitis deaths in 2019, up to 39 percent compared to 2000.

Maternal and neonatal tetanus has been nearly eradicated from the region, and in a historic public health achievement, the African region was declared free of the indigenous wild poliovirus in 2022, after years of relentless work to protect every child from the virus.