Baby Vaccine Shortage: Ablakwa Claims First Consignment Of Immunisation Medicines Came From Nigeria

• Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said the vaccines that arrived at the Kotoka International Airport on March 11, 2023, were donated to Ghana by Nigeria
• The MP made the claim in a post on Facebook on March 13 after many felt they came from UNICEF as health minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu promised
• Ghana has been hit by a severe case of shortage of baby vaccines nationwide, and already, five reports of deaths from measles have been recorded in the Northern Region

The outspoken opposition lawmaker Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has exposed an attempt by the Ministry of Health to make it look like UNICEF provided Ghana with the first consignment of baby vaccines that arrived recently.

The arrival of the Measles, BCG and Oral Polio vaccines at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on Saturday, March 11, 2023, was widely publicised.

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Before the arrival, health minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu told Parliament that the government has paid $6.4 million to UNICEF for the baby vaccines, stressing that they will soon arrive in the country.

He said within the next few weeks, the vaccines will arrive.

So when the undisclosed quantity of baby vaccines arrived in Ghana with pomp and pageantry, and the government suggested that those were the "first consignment", many felt they came from the UNICEF.

However, according to Ablakwa, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for North Tongu, the vaccines that arrived in Ghana on March 11 were received from Nigeria's excess baby vaccines as a form of bailout.

"Ghanaians shall not accept fabrications, ineptitude, mediocrity & leadership failure. If there was truly a global shortage of childhood vaccines, how did Nigeria (despite their population) have excess supply to bail out Ghana?

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"Why are others not in the same predicament as Ghana? Enough of the disaster!" Ablakwa posted on Facebook on Monday, March 13, 2023.

Health ministry, GHS receive first consignment of immunisation vaccines

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh covered the arrival of the first shipment of infant vaccinations against BCG, MR and OPV in an earlier story.

The vaccines were delivered to the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

Anxious parents had been assured by the minister during a parliament session that the vaccines would arrive soon.

The vaccines arrived in Ghana after five measles deaths were reported at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

Source: YEN.com.gh