The media has been urged to assist in public education regarding the significance of vaccination and immunization.
This is crucial for enhancing public understanding of vaccines' pivotal role in healthcare, given their historical effectiveness in combating various diseases.
According to Graphic Online, at a workshop held in Accra, Dr Amposa-Achiano, Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), highlighted concerns over COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, attributing it to misconceptions and misinformation lacking scientific basis.
He emphasized “Vaccines have been instrumental in protecting human lives for centuries, but they are victims of their success.
“Once people take a vaccine and they are not affected by the disease, they tend to attribute the vaccine as the cause of any other thing that affects them during the time they took the vaccines, irrespective of the fact that the vaccine was not responsible for such things.”
The workshop dubbed the "Media Engagement Project on Vaccine Uptake in Ghana: Editors Forum," convened health experts and editors nationwide, organized by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN), in collaboration with the GHS and WHO.
Dr. Amposa-Achiano stressed the media's pivotal role as both a conduit and guardian of information, urging accurate vaccine reporting to counter false narratives and combat hesitancy, particularly among adults.
He underscored the need for robust public education to address adult vaccine hesitancy, which could potentially affect childhood vaccination rates.
Albert Dwumfour, President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), echoed concerns over vaccine hesitancy's threat to public health initiatives, urging media engagement to dispel myths and highlight vaccination challenges for government action.
Dr Charity Binka, Executive Secretary of AMMREN, outlined the project's goal to encourage media platforms to educate the public on vaccines.
Adding to that, Dr Binka stated, “Initially, the focus was on COVID-19 vaccines but we decided to expand it to cover all vaccines administered in the country after we collaborated with the Ghana Health Service,’
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Vaccines have been instrumental in protecting human lives for centuries