The World health Organization has noted with concern the increase in vaccine hesitancy among the world’s population in recent times.
During a presentation on the Trends of Vaccine Hesitancy at a webinar on Strengthening Vaccine Communication in Ghana, Dr Michael Rockson Adjei, a Medical Officer, in charge of Immunization at the WHO Country Office for Ghana highlighted the fact that vaccine hesitancy has increased with a significant proportion of (21%) of the world’s population being hesitant.
This, according to the WHO, is fueled by factors such as complacency, convenience and confidence. Underpinned by misinformation, disinformation, socio-cultural beliefs, and practical issues, among others.
Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services. It is a global health challenge and threatens decades of immunization gains, even in countries that have long been immune to epidemics.
In Ghana, the hesitancy has decreased with vaccine confidence declining to approximately 14% between 2021 and 2022.
To address these issues, the WHO is proposing community engagement to understand concerns, values, and barriers, building capacity to improve confidence and competence in vaccine communication and strengthening service delivery by addressing practical barriers to vaccination service access and utilization
‘‘Vaccines that are approved for use are actually safe, going through a very rigorous process, and that they are in to serve a good purpose and not to harm. It averagely takes about 10 to 15 years for a vaccine to progress through research to manufacturing to become available. But we know that in exceptional situations just such as public health, when there’s a public health threat, as we saw with the COVID-19, the process can be short without compromising quality. The drivers of the duration or how long a vaccine takes to become available depends on funding,” he said.
Mr Rockson noted that the level of vaccine hesitancy is evolving.
“So let’s say in 2020, people’s behavior towards vaccine compared to now might have changed, so we can use all data to try and generate vaccine demand. We have to be dynamic testing the population always to see,’’ he said.
