The number was part of the 174 students who could not take part in the vaccination exercise in December 2017, when the general vaccination was done following a detection of the virus.

[contextly_sidebar id=”nsvLMXDrDDSIxu8tu4TQlI0F0Wvsp6vn”]Over 80 percent of the 2,810 student population, as well as teaching and non-teaching staff of the school and journalists, were vaccinated in December 2017 in the wake of the suspected outbreak of the disease at the school.

Speaking to Citi News, the Asokore Mampong Municipal Health Director, Ofori Amoah Justice, said the number of students who turned up for the exercise was encouraging.

He also encouraged other students who have not been vaccinated to ensure that they receive their injections.

“There were some students who were not vaccinated on the 21st to 22^nd December, so the health authorities and the school agreed on a date that today [Monday], that we will get all those who were not vaccinated against the H1N1. Actually, we were supposed to have vaccinated 174 students, but only 114 turned up, which to me is encouraging. We keep encouraging that the students come to school. When they come they should also make themselves available that they were not vaccinated in the previous and this current vaccination sessions so that together we will fight against the diseases, even though we have declared the epidemic to be over. But prevention is better than cure. We don’t want any episode of any diseases outbreak again.”

Four deaths were recorded at the school back in April 2017 from a suspected meningitis outbreak. But fourothers died in November, and the suspicion was that, they may have died from the H1N1 virus, after samples from some hospitalized students tested positive for the virus.

Respiratory samples sent to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research also indicated that there was an outbreak of an acute respiratory infection which the Health Ministry has since attributed as the cause of some of the deaths.

A private company was recently contracted by the Ministry of Education to carry out a fumigation exercise at the school following the suspected swine flu outbreak.

Most of the students left the school for their various homes, for fear of contracting the infection without taking the vaccines.

Speaking to Citi News after the latest vaccination exercise, Asokore Mampong Municipal Health Director, Ofori Amoah Justice, said the exercise will continue until the total student population is covered.

“The exercise is good, but coincidentally the students are having games, which did not allow them to come as expected, but we envisage that by close of week all those we didn’t get we will mob them up, and make sure we have the total population in KUMACA vaccinated, which means that we have about 90 to 99% of the population vaccinated against the H1N1 disease.”

He further pleaded with parents, students and the school authorities to report to the closest health facility any symptom of the infection for medical attention.

“I will use this opportunity to also inform parents and caretakers that we are in the meningitis season, and so we should be aware of any unusual happenings. Atypical example is headache, fever, neck pains, when you see any of these signs, please do report immediately to any nearby health facility and any necessary action that needs to be done will be done.”

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By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni blamed a decrease in vaccinations in part on a “spread of anti-scientific theories”.

Italy has recorded nearly three times as many measles cases so far this year than for all of 2016.

If children are not vaccinated by the age of six, the school starting age, their parents will be fined.

Conspiracy theories about the health risks of certain vaccinations – largely based on one discredited paper – have circulated around the world, leading some parents to shun immunisation.

In Italy, the number of two-year-olds vaccinated against measles has dropped from more than 90% to below 80%. This is well short of the World Health Organization’s recommended coverage of 95% or more.

Measles is highly contagious and can lead to death.

“The lack of appropriate measures over the years and the spread of anti-scientific theories, especially in recent months, has brought about a reduction in protection,” Mr Gentiloni told a press conference on Friday.
The twelve conditions children must be immunised against are:

• polio
• diphtheria
• tetanus
• hepatitis B
• haemophilus influenzae
• meningitis B
• meningitis C
• measles
• mumps
• rubella
• whooping cough
• chickenpox

“We are sending a very strong message to the public,” said Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin.

In recent years a loose group of campaigners against vaccinations, dubbed the ‘anti-vax’ movement, has dissuaded people from opting in to immunisations by citing supposed risks.

A long-discredited paper by Andrew Wakefield was behind much of the scare but the rumours around immunisation have continued to spread, leading to public health risks as not enough people are immune to such diseases.

Mr Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register after fraudulently claiming there was a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) and autism and bowel disease in children.

He made the claim based on the experiences of just 12 children, and no other study since has been able to replicate his results.

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Source: BBC

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