The
solarised cold room in Bansang village, Central River Region, was recently
commissioned by Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UNICEF country representative.
The
cold room was funded UNICEF Gambia country office.
In
her launching statement, Ms Nyanti said the 2007 comprehensive review of the
EPI revealed that there was inadequate vaccine storage capacity at regional
levels, especially in CRR.
“This
led to the artificial shortage of vaccines in the region, thereby affecting
immunisation coverage,” she said.
The
UN diplomat said this concern resulted in active resource mobilisation by
UNICEF and it was able to secure “a reasonable amount of resources” to
strengthen the cold chain system.
She
explained that the prefabricated cold room, with a refrigeration capacity of 10
cubic meters, was therefore procured and installed with a stand-by generator in
2009 to store vaccines for both CRR and URR.
The
2015 routine EPI supervisory visits revealed faults in the stand-by generator
in Bansang, thereby interrupting the full functioning of the cold room.
Ms
Nyanti said to address this challenge, UNICEF saw the need to explore alternative
sources of energy for the full and uninterrupted operation of the cold
room. This is what led to the
solarisation works of the cold room.
She
pointed out that the project received “huge amount of investment”; therefore,
the Ministry of Health, especially the regional health office, should take
maximum care of the equipment and endeavour to carry out regular preventive
maintenance.
The
UNICEF rep also called on the health ministry to create a budget line for the
maintenance of the cold chain system.
Fatou
Lamin Faye, minister for Basic and Secondary Education who deputised for
President Jammeh at the launching, said the availability of the vaccine cold
room in Bansang will “undoubtedly improve the storage” conditions of vaccines
thereby increasing the potency.
Minister
Faye said the inauguration of the solarised cold room in Bansang will provide
immunity for children and women in the country.
It will also serve as support to the Upper and Central River regions
thus making storage and distribution more reliable, effective and efficient.
Omar
Sey, minister of health, said effective vaccine management called for adequate
storage capacity with the required storage temperatures so as to deliver
immunisation service with potent vaccines.
“This
cold room has the capacity to store all the vaccine requirements of both the
Central and Upper River regions and will save electricity, travel costs and
time to collect vaccine from the national level,” he said.
Meanwhile,
Minister Sey also presided over the inauguration ceremony of the Janjanbureh
newly built medical centre and the commissioning of the upgraded Basse major
health centre to a referral hospital.
