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Gambia: WHO Certifies Country As a Polio Free Country
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FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)
2 January 2008
Posted to the web 2 January 2008
Yaya Bajo
The Department of State for Health and Social Welfare has expressed her wish to inform The Gambian public that The Gambia has been certified as a polio free country by the World Health Organisation. This message which was contained in a media dispatch added that the success was made possible through the support and cooperation of parents and the Department of State urges all to continue taking their children for routine immunization services.
Meanwhile, the Department, in collaboration with her partners, indicates that the National Measles Campaign which had been conducted from November 27 to December 3 2007 has been successfully completed. According to the release, prior to the campaign, the routine Measles coverage was 89% and the minimum coverage to qualify for elimination status is 95%. The release indicates that the objective of the campaign was to attain 95% coverage or above in order to put the country on the road to eliminating measles as a public health problem and The Gambia declared as a measles free country.
The dispatch further states that the target population for the campaign was 252,427 (children from 9 to 59 months). According to DOSH, the campaign has resulted in 96% coverage for measles, 93% for vitamin A supplementation and 92% for mebandazole. This coverage for measles is higher than the previous campaign conducted in 2003 which had a coverage of 93%. It could be recalled that during the planning stage of the campaign, the coverage targets set for measles was 95% and 80% for both vitamin A and mebandazole.
The success of the campaign, according to DOSH, was made possible through the provision of the required resources for the campaign by government, UNICEF, WHO, The Gambia Red Cross Society and The National Nutrition Agency and the full participation and cooperation of the general public.
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