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The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has launched the national yellow fever prevention campaign and it expects to vaccinate about 5,364,275 people in the country.

With the exception of Upper West Region, which has already been vaccinated, the seven-day campaign, which begins on November 28 to December 4; and targets people between 10 to 60 years, would be conducted in 65 districts in nine regions free of charge.

Speaking at the launching ceremony in Sunyani on Friday, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, the Director-General of the GHS, said yellow fever has emerged as a serious global health threat and called for concerted efforts to make the campaign successful.

He said it requires active support and engagements of traditional authorities, civil society actors and the municipal and district assemblies to make the campaign attain its desired results and called for concerted efforts among the major stakeholders to that effect.

Under the theme: “Get Vaccinated and Be Protected Against Yellow Fever”, the campaign is being supported by the UNICEF, GAVI and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Nsiah-Asare said 15 per cent of yellow fever cases developed severe complications, and appealed to the general public to report symptoms such as fever, jaundice, muscle ache, vomiting and loss of appetite to the nearest health facility for treatment. 

He said since 1992 the GHS has implemented several programmes including routine immunization services and mass vaccination campaigns to eliminate communicable diseases and expressed appreciation to the nation’s key partners – WHO, UNICEF, GAVI for spearheading and supporting various vaccination exercises.