By Thomas Nsowah-Adjei, Ashanti Region.
The first vaccine trial for typhoid fever among children between 9 and 15 years has begun at Agogo in the Asante Akyem North District of Ashanti. The trial is a collaborative project between the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the International Vaccine Institute in South Korea.
In all 23 thousand children have been targeted to go through the trial for three years, before it would be rolled out after approval by the Ghana Health Service and the Food and Drugs Authority.
Correspondent Thomas Nsowah-Adjei reports that parents whose children received the first shots were excited because the infection rate of typhoid among children in the country is very high.
Ghana and three other countries, Madagascar, D.R Congo and Burkina Faso are among countries selected to undertake the trial in Africa which has been approved by the World Health Organization, WHO.
More than € 3 million has been invested in the project.
Principal Investigator of the project, Professor Yaw Adu Sarkodie told Journalists that Asante Akyem District was selected for the trial because the area has been identified as very endemic with the typhoid disease.
Prof. Sarkodie said the safety of the vaccine is guaranteed.
‘’The vaccination is free and effective, therefore parents who are yet to enrol, should take advantage and vaccinate their children against typhoid, because it is deadly’’.
A Clinical Pharmacologist and Head of Pharmacy Practice at KNUST, Prof. Kwame Ohene Boabeng said children who come for the trial will be closely monitored to ensure the immediate response to any unfavourable reaction.
Two beneficiary parents, Mercy Amoako and Elizabeth Nyarko, expressed gratitude to the KNUST for free vaccination and appealed to mothers and other caregivers to allow their children to be enrolled in the trial to help fight typhoid fever.
