By: Adama Makasuba
Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) in partnership with United Nation Children Fund and Expand Program on Immunization announced plan to launching a nationwide meningitis campaign from February 2 to 8 on free of charges.
The campaign aimed to immunize at leas four hundred and sixteen thousand (4, 1600) children between the ages of 1-7 to as to eliminate the disease in the country.
Officials urged parents to come in their numbers and get their children immunized as they noted that immunizations would hold at community rendezvous, health centers a, markets and school ground across the country.
“Meningitis is deadly disease and mainly affects the brain. It affects the membrane but it’s preventable,” Sanjally Trawally, acting director at the ministry of health promotion at a press conference held at the offices of National Malaria Control Program.
Buya Jallow, immunization officer at UNICEF added: “We want to ensure that every child receives this vaccination, the vaccination is of high quality.”
Buba Darboe, program manager at expand program on immunization added that they aimed to introduce immunization and strengthen it within the country, adding that Gambia is a belt of meningitis countries in Africa.
According to officials, December and June are the most prone months to the disease and that it is a respiratory disease that claimed the lives of nine people in 2012 in the country, adding that the disease could cause hearing difficulties and at times kills if not rapidly cured.
In 2013, such camping was launched in the country that targeted ages of 1-29 and officials described that as successful
