Consultant neurosurgeon Dr Teddy Totimeh has underscored the critical role of vaccines in preventing infectious diseases, warning that declining public confidence could reverse decades of global health gains.
Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday (23 April), Dr Totimeh described immunisation as one of the most powerful tools in modern medicine, using a simplified analogy to explain how vaccines prepare the immune system to fight infections.
He compared the process to identifying a thief before a crime occurs, explaining that vaccines “show the body’s immune system what a disease looks like” so it can respond quickly when exposed.
“In immunisation, part of the infective organism is presented to the body’s defence system so it knows exactly what to fight,” he said.
Dr Totimeh noted that Ghana’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation, launched in 1978, has significantly reduced diseases such as measles, polio and diphtheria, which once contributed heavily to child mortality.
He cited historical data showing that measles alone accounted for tens of thousands of cases annually in the 1970s, but now records fewer than 50 cases in a year in some periods.
He said the elimination of diseases such as polio reflects the long-term effectiveness of vaccination programmes.
“Globally, immunisation has been radical in changing the face of disease control,” he added.
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