Fraudulent Yellow fever certification exposed - Health professionals implicated

Two international vaccination centres in the country are issuing yellow fever vaccine certificates to desperate travellers at excessively high prices without administering the vaccine. 

The health professionals, who are under the supervision of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), are conniving with middlemen to issue the vaccine cards to the travellers, a Daily Graphic investigation has established.

While some of the middlemen charge GH¢300, others are cashing out on the fraudulent venture by taking it to social media platforms such as Snapchat and charging travellers GH¢600 for the vaccination certificate.

The original cost of the vaccination certificate after taking the vaccine is GH¢100.

In addition to this, officials of the GHS, some of whom are signatories to the vaccination cards, have complained of forged signatures on some of the cards but the GHS has not been able to lay hands on them. 

Traveller

A Daily Graphic reporter posed as a traveller leaving the country and got two of the vaccination cards — one from an online vendor, and the other from the vaccination centre at Adabraka, which is in charge of vaccines for the Greater Accra Region.

The International Vaccination Centre in Accra

The middleman who only gave his name as O.K confirmed to the Daily Graphic that this was normal practice saying; "We can get this done for you but you would have to pay GH¢300. All we need is your passport number".

He demanded that GH¢300 be sent to his mobile money number before he worked on the certificate.

Shortly after sending the money, a WhatsApp Business account with the name Bernard Ahiator, contacted the reporter to send a picture of the bio page of the passport.

The account uses a default timer for disappearing messages in new chats to avoid being traced. The messages automatically get deleted after 24 hours. This is to ensure that no digital footprint is left for future tracing. 

A little over 30 minutes after sending the money, the reporter received a call to pick up the yellow fever vaccination certificate at the centre.

Snapchat

For the Snapchat account with the name Kelvin B, the reporter was asked to send GH¢600 for the new yellow fever vaccination card which has enhanced security features.

According to him, all the reporter needed was his passport picture and within 20 minutes, the certificate would be ready, showing the reporter evidence of successful transactions with other travellers.

The account frequently advertises COVID-19 vaccination cards and yellow fever certificates.

After sending the money to the wallet with the name, “Kelvin Quaye”, a dispatch rider delivered the vaccination certificate at an extra cost of GH¢30.

The account has been posting evidence of multiple yellow fever vaccination cards issued to travellers some of whom requested COVID-19 vaccination certificates when the COVID-19 was at its peak.

The Snapchat application provides users with enhanced privacy, ensuring that travellers are unable to take screenshots of their transactions.

The yellow fever certificate presented has been endorsed with the stamp of Dr Farida Njelba Abdulai, Deputy Director of Public Health- GAR (International Vaccination Centre, Accra).

Illegality

The Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) of the GHS, Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, who is a signatory to some of the vaccination cards, said the GHS had heard about the illegality adding, “But this is the first time I am seeing someone get the vaccination card without taking the vaccine.

He disclosed that some travellers had complained about missing their flights and delayed flights due to fake cards. 

On the implications of that on public health and international travel, he said, “It is wrong to acquire this card unofficially or not through the system.

You are at risk because if you don’t have yellow fever and you go and contract it, yellow fever is a deadly disease and that is why the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the rest of the world thought this is something you need for travel because it can kill you if you contract the disease.

“And then you also pose a risk to others and so we do not condone that at all, not at all,” he added. 

The yellow fever cards sit with the Public Health Division of the GHS.

The ones that go to KIA mostly will go through my office to sign, endorse and authorise for them to be released. We don’t deal with funds over here.

He said the GHS would further investigate the matter in collaboration with the police.

“We need to investigate this so that we get to the bottom of this and we will gladly support you because we want to weed the bad people.

“There are bad people in the system and once these go beyond us, it is a criminal thing and the police must step in,” he said. 

Yellow fever 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), yellow fever is an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes that bite mostly during the day.

It further describes yellow fever as an epidemic-prone mosquito-borne vaccine-preventable disease that is transmitted to humans by the bites of infected mosquitoes. 

It is caused by an arbovirus (a virus transmitted by vectors such as mosquitoes, ticks or other arthropods) transmitted to humans by the bites of infected Aedes and Haemagogusmosquitoes.

With an incubation period of three to six days, many people do not experience symptoms. Common symptoms include fever, muscle pain, headache, loss of appetite, nausea or vomiting. In most cases, symptoms disappear after three to four days.

A small percentage of patients enter a second, more toxic phase within 24 hours of recovering from initial symptoms.

Ghana is currently a yellow fever endemic country and as such, vaccination is the most important means of preventing yellow fever, making the vaccination mandatory for travellers leaving the country.

Per the International Health Regulations (IHR), countries have the right to require travellers to provide a certificate of yellow fever vaccination.

As an imported disease,  unvaccinated tourists can become infected in endemic regions such as Ghana and develop the disease when they return from their travels.

Writer’s mail: justice.agbenorsi@graphic.com.gh