WHO Deputy Director General urges Ghana to develop vaccines

The Deputy Director General of the World Health Organization Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, has emphasized the need for Ghana to produce its own vaccines rather than relying on external suppliers during disease outbreaks.

He said it would take a collaborative effort from all stakeholders for Ghana to be able to produce its own vaccines.

“We all need to work together. They should not leave vaccine development to scientists but to all who can help to develop it,” Dr Asamoa-Baah said at the University of Ghana Alumni Lecture 2015 in Accra on the theme: “Vaccines and Public Anxiety.”

He said there was the need to invest heavily in scientists and stakeholders in vaccine production since vaccine development was an arduous task.

“Vaccine is a very buoyant venture and when invested in will require adequate research, knowledge and understanding on the subject and time to yield its results,” he said.

On vaccine trials, Dr Asamoa-Baah said it was not dangerous, adding that it was good for Ghana to be involved in such efforts.

However, there is the need for many public consultations to curb the public anxiety on vaccines.

“Ghana can involve in other trials because most vaccines have hundred percent protections,” he said.

Dr Anarfi explained that vaccine clinical trials go through various phases: phase one examines safety and immune response for ten to twenty individuals and phase two determines optimum vaccine composition with safety for few thousands of individuals.

The phase three examines vaccines ability to prevent disease for tens of thousands of individuals and phase four which is the post-licensed monitoring identifies less common longer term adverse events in target populations.

Professor Ernest Aryeetey, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, said in order to make impact in the development of vaccines, we must see our situation as an opportunity to try these vaccines out, to solve a problem in the long term.

Source: GNA