Greetings all and Sundry!
I’m very happy to share with once again the concept of science. As a science teacher, I did my research on the latter update of some challenges that emanated in our deprived communities when it comes to their health conditions. During my research, I saw that many of them don’t take it serious when it comes to vaccination of their babies and children.
Vaccination in Ghana for babies day old to five years is basically free of charge without charging any money. As soon as the baby is delivered vaccination is carried out at every month to make sure the baby is in good condition till that five years. Our motive behind giving vaccination for free till five years is that babies are tender or fragile when it comes to health. They frequently fall sick if keen care isn’t taken to support them. It also become burden on parents to take all the charges. There has been recently babies mortality rate increasing when statistics was conducted. So to curb or eradicate this situation is for the Government to intervene and take some of the cost if not all. This basically brought about the free vaccination against certain diseases. Some of the diseases that were noted to be stubborn over the years are measles, polio, chicken box, tetanus, tuberculosis, malaria and cholera. They are described as the six killer diseases among babies. So, Government has decentralized place where nurses are dispatched to visit communities and administer this free vaccination. These drugs vaccines are in the various health directorate logistics for vaccines. During the time for vaccination, they issue out for the nurses to vaccinate the babies.
Screenshot from Joy Tv
Basically, the drugs are immune system booster to support build strong immune system in babies to be able to fight against these diseases I have mentioned. To some of the vaccines they inject using syrings. Others are oral drops that they give to babies. They nurses are trained in such a way that they build cordial relationship with the parents.
Despite the vaccination being free, most parents in our deprived areas do not take it seriously. Many of them do not bring their babies for the nurses to give them the vaccination. Some of the parents would bring their babies for the vaccination and at some point would pause bringing the babies for the nurses to administer them. The simple excuses of the parents upon my research is that, they are farming communities and do not get chance to bring their babies during the farming seasons. Some of the parents too do not have any tangible reasons to give.
Screenshot from Joy Tv
The challenges we are now facing is that, babies mortality rate is very high when we go to our villages or rural communities than our urban areas. A nurse speaking on Joy Tv revealed that the most prevailing challenge now is certain diseases are communicable which can be transmitted from one person to another person. In such situation if the immune system of those administered with the vaccine isn’t strong, they can still be contracted from those who didn’t receive the vaccines during the time of vaccination day. The nurse further explained that most babies are paralyzed due to the fact their parents didn’t take vaccination very seriously. There are a lot of challenges of deformities due to the fact that parents ignored vaccination. Some of the challenges are due to time factor and proximity to the centre where the vaccination is carried out. That is why Government has established a decentralized system at many places so that parents don’t travel longer distances to receive the vaccination. Some parents by nature don’t often accept the scientific way of treating their health issues when it comes to scientific drugs; they still hold the old system of using herbs for treatment. In this case they need further education before their mind can change. But this will obviously take some time. That’s why education is ongoing lately for various smaller communities to create awareness.