The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has officially launched a sub-national Mpox vaccination campaign in Ghana’s most affected city, Takoradi, in the Western Region.
The exercise was launched on October 4, 2025. Director of Public Health at GHS, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, received his first dose of the vaccine alongside other health officials, signalling the start of the campaign.
The vaccination exercise will be conducted over 21 days, targeting the most affected communities in the Western Region.
Speaking at the launch, a representative from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Frank Lule, stated: “The initiative to launch the Mpox vaccine in Takoradi is a vital step toward protecting citizens. The deployment of the vaccine, along with other interventions, will help bring the outbreak under control.”
According to regional health authorities, “the Western region has so far recorded 299 confirmed Mpox cases and 1,109 identified contacts. Of the 14 districts in the region, 13 have reported confirmed cases, with 59 active cases currently under management. Sadly, two deaths have been recorded as a result of the outbreak.”
The GHS urges all eligible individuals to take part in the vaccination campaign and continue observing public health guidelines to help curb the spread of the disease.
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What is Mpox?
Mpox is a viral disease that is transmitted to humans through close contact with an infected person or animal, or with material contaminated with the virus.
Common symptoms include fever, rash, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy, and swollen lymph nodes.
- Mpox spreads from person to person mainly through close contact with someone who has mpox, including members of a household.
- Close contact includes skin-to-skin (such as touching or sex) and mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-skin contact (such as kissing), and it can also include being face-to-face with someone who has mpox (such as talking or breathing close to one another, which can generate infectious respiratory particles).
- People with multiple sexual partners are at higher risk of acquiring mpox.
- People can also contract mpox from contaminated objects such as clothing or linen, through needle injuries in health care, or in community settings such as tattoo parlours.
- During pregnancy or birth, the virus may be passed to the baby. Contracting mpox during pregnancy can be dangerous for the fetus or newborn infant and can lead to loss of the pregnancy, stillbirth, death of the newborn, or complications for the parent.
- Animal-to-human transmission of mpox occurs from infected animals to humans from bites or scratches, or during activities such as hunting, skinning, trapping, cooking, playing with carcasses or eating animals. The animal reservoir of the monkeypox virus remains unknown, and further studies are underway.
Read more about Mpox, its symptoms, transmission, treatment, and prevention from our previous report.
