GAMBIA: More children dying despite anti-malaria campaign
IRINnews Africa, Wed 5 Nov 2003


BANJUL, - Gambian health experts are warning that more Gambian children are
dying from malaria despite an intensive campaign against the disease and
the provision of heavily subsidised anti-malaria drugs by the government.

Mamo Jawla, Manager of the Gambia National Malaria Control Programme, said
that up to 2,000 children were dying each year of malaria, making it the
main cause of infant mortality.

"The situation is disturbing because the World Health Organisation (WHO)
has ranked the Gambia number one in West Africa for its efforts to control
the spread of malaria," Jawla told IRIN.

"He said the death rate increased with the rainy season that runs from
early June to the end of October in this tiny West African country of 1.3
million people. The rains fill up streams and rivers in the Gambian
interior and the extensive swamps around the capital, Banjul, where
mosquitoes which spread malaria breed.

According to Jawla, sick children under the age of five make up close to 50
percent of all admissions to hospitals and other government health
facilities and 40-60 percent of out-patients. Many of those children are
malaria cases.

Jawla said The Gambia’s National Malaria Control Programme had six
integrated components. One of these, called Case Management, encourages
communities to rush the sick to the nearest health facility. The programme
encourages people to sleep under bed-nets treated with insecticide so that
they are not bitten by mosquitoes.

"Gambia spends at least US $20,000 annually to subsidise malaria drugs, but
malaria still poses a major problem for the government. It a major health
problem that also affects a significant number of pregnant women," he said.

In 2002, British scientists started field trials in The Gambia to gauge the
effectiveness of a possible vaccine against malaria. The scientists from
Oxford University and the British Medical Research Council did a first
round of clinical trials in The Gambia in September 2000. The research is
continuing.

Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic disease, transmitted from person to
person through the bite of a mosquito. Ninety percent of the one million
people it kills every year are in Africa. Every 30 minutes, one African
child dies from it.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The material contained in this article is from IRIN, a UN humanitarian
information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post any item
on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or
extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All graphics
and Images on this site may not be re-produced without the express
permission of the original owner.
All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs 2003
-------------------------------------------------------------------

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~