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A nationwide vaccination of children between nine months and 14 years against measles and rubella diseases begun on Wednesday. The vaccination exercise, which will last for 10 days, is to immunise children against the killer diseases and to improve their health. Mrs Millicent Ofosu Apea, one of the coordinators of the exercise at the Princess Marie Louis Children�s Hospital of the Ashiedu Keteke Constituency in Accra, interacting with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said, the introduction of this year�s measles and rubella vaccines is to help reduce the number of suspected persons with the disease in the country. She noted that 22 children have so far been vaccinated during the GNA�s visit to the hospital and expressed the hope that the number would increase as they had dispatched more nurses to the communities, markets, as well as vantage points for the immunisation exercise. Mrs Apea said children, who are under severe sickness, allergies and conditions such as AIDS and cancer, which may compromise their life would not be given the vaccines. She therefore advised parents to know their children�s status. She encouraged parents to take the immunisation exercise seriously as the rubella infection can lead to blindness, deafness, mental retardation, heart defects and a range of other conditions that affect children�s development. Madam Amina Salifu, a trader who spoke with the GNA, said she is yet to immunise her children since the exercise just begun, however her colleague, Madam Comfort Allotey, also a trader, said she was not aware of the exercise and so had not made her mind yet to immunise her children. Ms Mercy Aryee, a nurse, who spoke to the GNA, during a visit to a vaccination centre at Makola said the turn-out had been low but was hopeful the next few days would be different as schools had now re-opened.