President strengthens Gambia’s laboratory disease surveillance

In her remarks, VP Njie-Saidy affirmed that the items are meant for effective surveillance of health-related cases going on in the sub-region and beyond. “As you know the president has always been ready. He always believes in prevention before cure and over the years he has always demonstrated it,” the veep spoke of her boss.

Thanking the president for this generosity, Njie-Saidy underscored that health is critical in anybody’s life, because as she puts it, “without good health, we cannot even talk about healthy human capital for attaining Vision 2020 because we require a healthy population to do that job.”

The state’s no.2 asserted that the Gambian leader has done a lot for all the sectors as well as the sub-region and humanity in general, and prayed for his longevity and good health.

She acknowledged the good work of the Ministry of Health, the resultant effect of which, she said, includes the reduction of so many health-related problems in the country. She urged the health officials to judiciously make best use of the items. 

The secretary general, head of the Civil Service and Presidential Affairs minister, Momodou Sabally, described the event as a moment of joy and satisfaction for yet another timely intervention by the president in a sector that has been earmarked as one of his priorities from 1994 to date. 

“We live in a sub-region where we have serious issues in terms of health, but with the dedication and commitment of His Excellency, the president and his able team including the vice president who had also served sometime as Health minister, we were able to see 20 years of total lack of any serious outbreak,” he stated.

The SG thanked the president for the gesture, and noted that The Gambia unlike other countries is always cited as a role model in terms of how it is able to effectively protect its people from the dangerous disease such as Ebola. 

“I want to seize this opportunity to call on the dynamic team at the Ministry of Health to keep up the momentum and there is no room for complacency in this business. We have to keep watching and not to rest on our laurels,” he concluded. 

The Health and Social Welfare minister, Omar Sey, said his Ministry was very happy to receive the materials, which will benefit the whole country. “This donation came at a time when all the developing countries were thinking about how to contain the epidemics going on around the world,” he stated. 

The minister said the support will go a long way towards helping health service providers in their disease surveillance, particularly for those in the rural areas. “So we want to thank the president and we pray every day for him,” he concluded. 

The Basic and Secondary Education minister, Fatou Lamin Faye, thanked Allah for giving Gambians a leader like Jammeh, who she said, is caring and has the health of his people at heart. 

“He is a leader who does not want anything less than the best for his people. These materials are going to be used, to test for problems, that can be an epidemic in this country and I think it is a very good gesture. We cannot do anything for the president but to pray for him so that Allah rewards him for what he is doing,” she asserted. 

The minister stressed that the much talked about Vision 2016 will not be achieved without a healthy populace, thanking the president for making sure that the health service delivery in the country is an ‘excellent one’ and taken to the doorstep of every Gambian. 

“There is a mobile laboratory, which is now going to help us [in case of] any outbreak that we might be challenged with because instead of transferring samples from wherever it is to the city, we will now go there to find them and we have a better place to contain it,” she concluded. 

The permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Mackie Taal, said the equipment will go a long way towards averting the problem of public health diseases. 

The ceremony was attended by the minister for Environment, Climate Change, Parks and Wildlife and Water Resources, Pa Ousman Jarju; the minister of Youth and Sports, Alieu K Jammeh; the minister of Energy, Dr. Edward Saja Sanneh; and the Attorney General and minister of Justice, Mama Fatima Singhateh.