Regional Activities

REGIONAL HEALTH DIRECTORATE, LRR

On the 17th February 2023 I also joined a team on covid 19 sensitization and screening at Sare Musa in Jarvra West. Where the team was able to screen a total of 214 people for covid 19 and we have 2 positive cases during the screening. You can see the images above
On April 2023 I conducted monitoring on achieving 0% CLTS strategy of building toilets for low-income households who cannot afford to build themselves a latrine at Sibito. A program coordinated by the WASH unit and sponsored by UNICEF. As you can see in the image above latrine dug but waiting on the local artisan for construction.
Incineration is routinely conducted by the team of Soma District Hospital headed by Mr Kebba Ceesay; we have almost incinerated over 1000 safety boxes over the period from January 2023 to date.
Taken the civil registration of births to the doorstep of the community members were they are sensitize about the importance of birth registration especially for the early births.

REGIONAL HEALTH DIRECTORATE, NBWR


FOOD INSPECTION 

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY EXERCISE DONE BY NBW PHOs


This was an sensitization of Motorbike riders to the importance of safe driving. Doing it alongside police traffic officers 


This was done in Fass Njagga Choi community

This was done in Fass Njagga Choi community


REGIONAL HEALTH DIRECTORATE, URR


RECOMMENDATIONS



 

REPORT ON INSPECTION OF AN ILLEGAL DUMING SITE IN BASSE SANTA SU


The dump site is located in a residential area highly populate with some important infrastructure, examples NAWEC main borehole, Basse graveyard, the Praying Ground, Schools etc. The site is surrounded to the North by the main praying ground, the borehole to the south, and the eastern part by the graveyard and residents. Basse District Hospital been the only referral hospital in URR is less than 500m away from this site.

Waste is been generate in everyday life by human and need to be handled with care, as waste from any urban community will not only create Aesthetic problem but also serve as a potential health risk if it is not properly handler and segregate.

Unfortunately the above dump Site have all the potential to cause hazard to human, animals and the environmental which include our sources of drinking water.


FINDINGS


REGIONAL HEALTH DIRECTORATE, western region 2


INTROUCTION

All humans require basic nourishment, but notably those who are nursing, under the age of five, or who are women of childbearing age are more crucial to have good nutrition. Malnutrition will result from inadequate nutritional intake, whether it is less or more than the body requires.

Malnutrition is a major public health issue that primarily affects young children and women who are pregnant. One of the main causes of death among children under the age of five is malnutrition.

In the Gambian, about 15.7% are stunted (height- for-age), 5.8% wasted (weight- for- height) and underweight (weight –for- age) respectively (DHS 2013, GMNS 2018/9). As a result capacity building of s village support groups, mothers club, and other members from the 16th to 17th June 2023 a stepdown training on mother MUAC lead training was conducted targeting three categories of VSG’s, Mother Clubs and other stakeholders in their respective communities due to their vital role they are expected to do by disseminating  the information gained from the workshop  to their community gatherings.

The Facility staffs are expected to disseminate information on nutrition during health care service delivery while the CHNs are required to monitor the VSGs for the dissemination of correct messages. Forty (40) participants were trained at Regional Health Directorate, Western 2.


TRAINING OF VILLAGE SUPPORT GROUPS, MOTHERS CLUB AND OTHER COMMUNITY MEMBERS ON MOTHER MUAC 

OBJECTIVES

METHODOLOGY


TOPICS COVERED DURING THE TRAINING

The training was conducted at the Nyambai Health Post and the  topics covered includes:-Introduction and concept of malnutrition, Breastfeeding, Nutrients, sources and functions, Maternal Nutrition, How to feed babies who cannot breastfeed, Breastfeeding in special situation, Importance of breastfeeding, Breastfeeding and birth spacing, Breast conditions, Breastfeeding and working mother, Complementary feeding, Malnutrition: Causes, consequences and prevention, Growth monitoring and promotion, Environmental sanitation and end up  with General discussions

OUTCOME

All the sessions were successfully presented and were very participatory

CONSTRAINT

WAYFORWARD

Provide training for more VSG’s Mothers club and the other relevant stakeholders in their communities and increase the duration to adequately all the components.

 CONCLUSION

It has been noted that doctors and nurses tend to overlook malnutrition while examining children under the age of five, which causes the majority of kids to receive the wrong diagnosis. Furthermore, malnutrition is strongly linked to cultural beliefs. Consequently, it is necessary to train more VSG Mothers Club members as well as other pertinent parties to distribute critical information on malnutrition at both the facility and community levels. These will considerably enhance our kids' nutritional state.


REGIONAL HEALTH DIRECTORATE, CRR


MULTI ANTIGEN PERIODIC INTENSIFICATION OF ROUTINE IMMUNISATION (PIRI) CAMPAIGN

The Ministry of Health through Expanded Program on Immunization and the Regional Health Directorate Central River Region conducted a multi antigen Periodic Intensification of Routine Immunisation (PIRI) from 18th to 27th September 2023. The objective of this activity is to increase the coverage of COVID-19 vaccination, trace and vaccinate zero dose and under-immunised children as well as vaccinate eligible girls with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine. 

 

The approach to this activities involved; Fixed Teams at Hospitals and Health facilities, Outreach, and Routine on defaulter tracing on antigens (Penta, PCV, OPV, IPV, Rota & HPV).


Age          Vaccine              Total

12>          COVID-19          5013

9-14          HPV                   5730


HPV PERFORMANCE

COVID-19 PERFORMANCE

Photos on IRS Campaign, 2023

Indoor Residual Spraying Campaign 2023

The insecticide used was Fludora Fusion. The efficacy of Fludora Fusion IRS was evaluated over 11–12 months on concrete and mud substrates in laboratory bioassays and experimental huts against wild free-flying pyrethroid-resistant Anopheles gambiae.

Below is the data on 2023 IRS;


Registration                                 Total

Registered households                  12, 924

Sprayable rooms                           70, 761

Rooms sprayed                              67, 193 

Rooms not sprayed                        3, 568


Percentage of rooms sprayed 94.96% 



Sall kunda’s Pit Latrine


ACUTE FLACCID PARALYIS (AFP) CASE IN NIANIJA 


INTRODUCTION

Acute Flaccid Paralysis is a condition characterised the sudden weakness of the limbs (extremities) of an individual, causing difficulty in moving the affected limbs. However, AFP can be caused by both infectious and non-infectious agents. To ascertain whether An AFP is not infectious, a thorough investigation is done, including a laboratory analysis of the stool sample of the affected individual.

On the 02nd June 2023, an 11-year-old child by the name withheld, whose father and mother are residents of a Village called Sinchu Omar in Nianija District of CRR fell off a table while she was playing at home. After this, she was brought to Chamen Health for Consultation and, the following day she had difficulty in moving her left arm.

ACTIVITY

Monday 05th June 2023, during a routine weekly surveillance of the health center OPD registers, Modou Lamin Bah, the Public Health Officer (District Surveillance Officer) together with Lamin Gibba an RN general came across a diagnosis of a ‘’fall from height’’ in one of the Out Patient Department (OPD) registers.

The Surveillance Officer used the Public Health Office’s motorbike to go Sinchu Omar to search for the patient. With the help of the Village Health Worker (VHW) of Sinchu Omar by the Edi Camara, tracing the child’s compound became easy. Greetings were exchanged and the Surveillance Officer explained the purpose of the visit. Habbie was found with the state of a true AFP.

On the 7th June, he (the Surveillance Officer) went back to the family of the child to sensitize them about AFP, polio and their connection to Open Defecation (OD). According to the family, the mother was a consistent RCH goer when Habbie was a baby, but the mother lost the Infant Welfare Card (IWC) of the child somewhere along the line after the child graduated from going to RCH. However, the mother with the help of the family members were asked to recall the estimates of the vaccination history of the child.  It was a good thing that the Sall family are not practicing OD because it was evident that there is toilet built in the compound which is a Pit Latrine with a slab.


COMMUNITY-LED TOTAL SANITATION (CLTS) ASSESMENT REPORT IN NIANIJA 2023

INTRODUCTION

Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is an approach that facilitates communities to conduct their own appraisal and analysis of open defecation, mobilizing people to identify and find solutions to their sanitation needs. CLTS encourages people to take action to improve their situation by utilizing local knowledge, technology and innovation. 99% of the households in The Gambia is OD free. One percent of the nation’s household is what is practicing OD. In the quest to make the Gambia Open Defecation Free, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) unit in partnership with UNICEF ventured in process of building latrine for needy households in the country.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION NIANIJA DISTRICT

Nianija is one of the districts in Central River Region (CRR) on the northern bank of river Gambia with 32 communities. Chemen being the largest and Sinchu Puye being the smallest. It has a total population of 12039, pregnant women prevalence of 457, a live birth of 36 monthly, surviving infant 35, an under 15 population of 5143, and an under 5 population of 1890 children. It is a district with a mixture of different tribes and Fulas being the majority. It has a District Chief whose name is Dawda York, a resident of Buduck situated around the centre of the district. It has one Health Centre and a Health post located at Chamen and Bakadagie respectively at opposite ends of the district.

ACTIVITY AND METHODOLOGY

On the 18th May 2023, a team from the Water Sanitation and Hygine (WASH) plus a representative from CRR Regional Health Directorate came to Chamen Health Center to meet and orient four MDFTs members (2 Public Health Officers, a Community Health Nurse at Village Health Service and Community Development Assistant) by theirs Modou Lamin Bah, Seray Sidibeh, Malang Jallow & Alieu Kinteh respectively.

A data from the 2021 GIS Survey was used a reference to assess the communities in the district. The methodology used was a developed questionnaire that include the name and contact of household heads, whether they have a toilet or not, the condition their toilets, and a comment section that captured any other thing worth capturing for the purpose of the program. The Data collection lasted for 5 days from 17th-21st May. MDFTs that participated in the assessment were; PHO Modou Lamin Bah, PHO Modou Lamin Camara, PHO Baba Samateh, CDA Alieu Kinteh and Yaya Jobe water resource personnel.  A total of 355 households were found without a Latrine.

MEETING WITH OD HOUSEHOLD HEADS AT SINCHU TAMSIR & NGEDEN


INTRODUCTION

Sinchu Tamsir and Ngeden are communities that are part of the beneficiaries to the current on-going Smart Subsidy Project at Nianija district. They are both communities with existing evidence of Open Defecation (OD). Sinchu Tamsir and Ngeden are the 4th and 5th respectively in the ranking with OD households in the district, 26 and 21 households without latrines. The purpose of the meetings was to further inform the OD household heads their roles and responsibilities towards the project and how good their assistance to the Local Artisans will help them and the project.

METHODOLOGY

The ‘’Bantaba’’ approach was used.

On the 24th June, PHO Modou Lamin Bah called both Alkalos of Sinchu Tamsir (Saidou Jallow) and Ngeden (Saikou Jallow) informing them about his desire to meet the OD Household Heads of their communities the following day 25th June 2023. Both alkalos welcomed the idea and went on inform the OD household heads in their respective communities with the help of their VDC chairman.

In the evening hours of the 25th June 2023, PHO Modou Lamin Bah went to both communities starting with Sinchu Tamsir then Ngeden. After the opening prayers, the PHO was given the floor to remind the community members of their roles & responsibilities, and their cooperation with the local artisans especially those that are not from their locality. Both alkalos strengthen the words of the PHO and added their words of wisdom for their community people to take heed. After which some community elders threw some words to the gatherings too.


   The Gathering at Sinchu Tamsir 

The Gathering at Ngeden 

School Health At Boiram Basic Cycle School In Lower Fulladou


Shop Inspection At Brikamaba Loumo 

Cleansing Exercise With GRCS At Brikamaba Fish Market


Inspection at a Dumpsite around the Brikama-Ba Loumo

REGIONAL HEALTH DIRECTORATE, WESTERN ONE