The Gambia News

Banjul, 19 December 2013 -- The Vice President of the Republic of the Gambia and Minister for Women’s Affairs, Dr Ajaratou Isatou Njie-Saidy, has described Dr Thomas Sukwa, out-going WHO Representative to the Gambia, as an effective, committed and flexible leader who has made a mark during his tenure of office.

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Happy End...On day 6, the estimates is 101% coverage at countrywide. The post camapign evaluation will give us a real picture of what happens in the field. The population have responded positively to the social mobilization appeal. On Day 7 (last Wednesday) the population was still crowded and as we heard from differents parts of the Country, the teams was under pressure cause of the important demand.

On day 5 of the MenA campaign in the Gambia, the estimates coverge at coutrywide is 95%. In some Regions like North Bank East (NBE) the coverage is more than 100%. The question is WHY? In reference to the reality in the ground (photos), this Region is a place where people are crossing from the neighbouring country (Senegal).

Bansang, in the Central River Region (CRR). During the vaccination days people were crowded waiting to get vaccinated. The total target population is 147.842 people from 1-29 years old.

MenAfriVac mass campaign vaccination that is conducted in the Gambia since the 28 of November will give the opportunity to about 1.2 million people from 1-29 years old to get immunized against meningitis « A » the more epidemic type of meningitis in Africa.

On the second day of the campaign, UNICEF and WHO Representatives in the Gambia were in the field to make a follow up and a supervision visit. The two Representatives were with their technical teams.

Banjul, 6 November 2013 -- The Gambia successfully concluded a second round of 2013 synchronized national immunization days against polio. An esti-mated 412613 children, aged 0 – 59 months, were targeted during the four- day exercise - Friday 25 to Monday 28 October 2013. Overall, 99.5% of the target population was immunized with marked im-provement registered in all the seven health regions.

The African Region is still dominated by very high prevalence of communicable diseases as well as high maternal and infant mortality in weak and fragmented health systems thus facing significant health challenges in spite of the multitude of stakeholders active in health.

Banjul, 14 august 2013 -- The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has, this afternoon, formally introduced the Rotavirus vaccine into the national immunization programme. This is the newest vaccine introduced into the national immunization programme and the eleventh since establishment of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in the late 1970s. It is also the third since 2009. Pneumococcal vaccine and the second dose of the measles vaccine were introduced in 2009 and 2012 respectively.