The Gambia News

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:

Banjul, 1 June 2012 -- “Smoking kills” “By smoking, you are committing suicide” “Say No to tobacco”. These were some of the slogans teachers and students of Brufut Lower Basic School (BLBS) and the local community sang as they took to the streets of Brufut village to commemorate World No-Tobacco Day.

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.

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.

Banjul, Wednesday 05 June, 2013 -- The Gambia joined the international community in commemorating World No Tobacco Day on 31 May 2013. The event was launched in the village of Sibanor in the West Coast Region, about 70 km from the capital, Banjul.

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, 16 May 2013 -- The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, this morning, hosted a press briefing at its headquarters in Banjul, the capital city of the Gambia, marking the official launching of African Vaccination Week (AVW). It will be recalled that the Gambia could not, for various reasons, join the rest of the continent in observing the 3rd edition AVW in April 2013 but today’s press briefing is construed as a demonstration of commitment to strengthening immunization services in the country.

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.