Interview with Dr. K.O. Antwi-Agyei, Ghana’s Expanded Program on Immunization Manager by Doune Porter, GAVI Alliance.
Dr. K.O. Antwi-Agyei, manager of Ghana’s Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) wants no part of “business as usual.” He and his team are working on an unprecedented joint GAVI-supported introduction of pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines, which will protect children against the leading causes of pneumonia and severe diarrhea. The launch will take place in Accra on April 26, 2012.
“Pneumonia and diarrhea are killing our children,” says Dr. Antwi-Agyei. “Yes, it is challenging to introduce two vaccines at the same time, but the diseases are not waiting for us, so that when we are finished dealing with one, only then will the other show itself. In the meantime, people are dying. We need to do business unusually.
Have you ever been to the movies and seen a trailer for a film that you previously had no interest in seeing and then suddenly thought to yourself “That is a film I CANNOT MISS”?
That was the idea behind GAVI’s most recent production. It’s a three-minute film by Ryan Youngblood, a talented young American filmmaker, that I stumbled across in Kigali one day, and I think he and producer Doune Porter more than fulfilled their brief.
Last week in DC, I had the opportunity to sit down with Mercy Ahun from the GAVI Alliance Secretariat. When I first met her two years ago, she was GAVI’s Director of Program Delivery, but recently she was named GAVI’s Special Representative to GAVI-Eligible Countries. In this role, she serves as a bridge between GAVI, countries receiving GAVI support, and donors, and she works to develop customized approaches that deliver even more effective results on the ground.
ONE is really excited that in less than 1 month, Ghana will become the first country to roll out pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines at the same time. Especially as a Ghanaian, what does this milestone mean to you?
It’s been exciting! I remember the first time I was talking to Ghana’s EPI (Extended Program on Immunization) Manager about this, and I said, are you sure you want to do this? And he said yes—we are close to achieving MDG 5 (reducing child deaths); doing this allows us to hit two birds with one stone. And when I started looking at their vaccine programs, and saw that they already had achieved high coverage levels of other vaccines, I said yes, I think the system is strong enough to do this. And I think it is important to document the process in Ghana so then others can learn from it.
I go to Ghana about six times in a year, and we have an excellent relationship not just with the EPI Manager but with other groups in the Ministry of Health and with the partners. When we’re in Ghana, you can catch the excitement. I remember that one person said to me, “It feels like the whole world is looking at us”, and to that I just think: wow.
What does a country like Ghana need to do to prepare itself for a vaccines roll out?
Check out this great news on rotavirus, courtesy of Candace Rosen at PATH (from PATH’s RotaFlash newsletter), which you all helped to support with your advocacy for GAVI last spring!
Diarrhea is the third biggest killer of children under five years of age in Zambia (40 per day; 15,000 each year), and rotavirus, the most common cause of severe and fatal diarrhea in young children, is responsible for nearly one-third of those deaths. As in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest rates of rotavirus mortality worldwide, rotavirus contributes heavily to the tremendous drain on the health and economic resources in Zambia:
Approximately 41 percent of young children hospitalized for severe diarrhea are infected with rotavirus.
An estimated 4,506children under age five die from rotavirus diarrhea annually.
Vaccines are the best way to protect children in Zambia and the rest of the world from severe rotavirus diarrhea and the deadly dehydrating diarrhea that it causes.
Dr. Clarisse Loe Loumou of GAVI’s Civil Society Organization Constituency makes a major announcement that will affect the health of millions of children around the globe.
During my years of practice in the largest pediatric hospital of Cameroon in Yaoundé, I remember that the 300 beds were rarely empty. I was in charge of the gastroenterology and paediatric nutrition ward, where 28 beds were occupied more than 90 percent of the time by infants who were dehydrated and suffering from severe diarrhea.
Our problem was not the diarrhea itself — its treatment protocols are well known; oral re-hydration salts, adequate re-nutrition, zinc supplementation, intravenous (IV) fluids for the most severe cases — but in making real the possibility of preventing severe diarrhea. It was and still is common for children in Cameroon and other parts of Africa who are suffering from severe diarrhea to die due to limited access to oral re-hydration salts, IVs, clean drinking water, or even the inability to reach a hospital in time.
Last month, we launched “Vaccines and Voodoo in Benin, Africa,” an original documentary that reports on some of the unique partnerships that the medical officials and voodoo practitioners in Benin have made to help save lives through vaccines. But it looks like those who work on child health in the country will have a lot more work to do in the coming weeks.
Just one week after the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations’ (GAVI) successful pledging conference, Helen Evans, interim CEO of GAVI, dropped by ONE’s DC office this week to say thanks. Check out her heartfelt message to all the ONE members around the world who campaigned on behalf of GAVI and child vaccines:
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