The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare on Wednesday held a press briefing on Polio National Immunisation Days (NIDs), which is starting on Saturday at the Ministry in Banjul.

The Gambia is joining 18 other West and Central African countries to organise this day. This is a synchronised activity spearheaded by the World Health Organisation with support from UNICEF and Rotary International in order to help break the wild polio virus chain of transmission in anticipation for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Polio is a disease caused by germs, which kill or cripple mainly children and can be transmitted by drinking or eating contaminated water and foods with faeces. The disease, which has no cure at the moment, can be prevented by vaccination.

Speaking at the briefing, Yamundow Lowe- Jallow, programme manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, said that the campaign will help the country’s health sector to maintain its stand as far as polio is concerned and also to retard the tendency of imported polio cases in the country. According to her, the last polio case to be witnessed was in 1986 but that nontheless, it should not stop parents from taking their children for vaccination since the last campaign was in 2007. She therefore thanked their collaborators in this campaign.

For his part, Alhagie Omar Taal, deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, said The Gambia has done a lot in the global education initiative, noting that over the years, series of national immunisation have been conducted by the health ministry.
According to him, the first national immunisation campaign was in 1998 and ever since, The Gambia has conducted 12 successful campaigns with high immunisation coverage supplemented with active surveillance for any wild polio virus importation which has been very good for the past years. He said due to this achievement, The Gambia was declared polio-free in 2004 but also attributed it to the support of the government, development partners, and the enthusiastic caring parents who bring on their children for vaccination.

Taal further said that the first round of the campaign is starting on the 6th-9th March and the second round will be from 24th-27th April 2010 where an estimated amount of 381,134 children of under-five years are expected to receive the vaccination. He finally urged all parents to ensure that their children undergo the vaccination as the crew will be going to each household. He tressed that kicking polio out of the country means millions of dalasis that are spent can be diverted to something else for national development.