The Gambia News

Banjul, 17 May 2012 -- The WHO Country Office (WCO) yesterday briefed the Gambian delegation to the 65th World Health Assembly (WHA). “Such a briefing session is now a tradition of the WCO to prepare country delegates to this important global WHO governing body”, Dr Thomas Sukwa, WHO Representative (WR) to the Gambia, reiterated in welcoming delegates to the WCO.

Banjul, 14 May 2012 -- The last week of April 2012 witnessed two important health events in the Gambia. The first was World Malaria Day and the second, a sub-regional laboratory training workshop on pneumococcal surveillance and pediatric bacterial meningitis.

Banjul, 09 April 2012 -- During the past couple of weeks The Gambia had been actively engaged in a series of international health events – synchronized polio NIDs, World TB Day and World Health Day respectively. The first in the series was the successful conduct of National Immunization Days against polio (NIDs) from 23 to 26 March 2012.

Banjul, 17 January 2012 -- “We in the education sector believe that the learner needs to be given room for self-exploration and application of what is learnt rather than being a passive recipient. This is exactly what the WHO Health Academy Project is trying to achieve”. These were the words of the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Mr Baboucarr Bouy, at a recent ceremony marking the end of a countrywide inter-secondary school competition on the WHO Health Academy Project (HAP).

Banjul, 12 December 2011 -- The Honourable Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Fatim Badjie, this morning launched the national measles vaccination campaign at the Kanifing Municipal Council Headquarters. An estimated 310735 children between 9 and 59 months are targeted for this exercise. Vitamin A supplementation for the 6 - 59 months old, representing a target population of 329014 children, will also be carried out simultaneously during the one week exercise which ends on Sunday, 18th of December 2011.

Banjul, 15 June 2012 -- The WHO Country Office (WCO) concluded a two-day staff retreat at Seaport Residence Hotel in Bijilo, yesterday. The retreat, better described as a workshop, was held on 13 - 14 June 2012, and was attended by the WR, programme officers and two staff from the Country Support Unit (CSU).

The main objectives of the meeting were:

Advocacy visit

The Gambia, a country in West Africa is preparing to introduce the New meningococcal Vaccine « MenAfriVac », by mid-november 2013. In preparation to this public health event, an advocacy mission was conducted in Banjul to meet with the national authorities and the stakeholders.

“Using ICT to promote health in schools”

Banjul, Friday, 7 June 2013 -- The African Development Bank (AfDB) has announced the 10 winners of its first continent-wide eHealth competition for 2013. This award, according to information issued on AfDB website, recognizes the current work being done in e-health and m-health in Africa and aims at encouraging the production and sharing of knowledge on eHealth solutions.

Banjul, Thursday, 6 June 2013 -- The Gambia has successfully participated in the 2013 synchronized, sub-regional National Immunization Days (NIDs) against polio in which 13 countries in West and Central African countries took part. The four-day exercise began on Friday 24 and ended on Monday 27 May 2013.

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.