Medical
Research Council (MRC) Unit-The Gambia over the weekend held an open day at the
Serekunda Health Centre to sensitise the community about the new study,
pregnAnz1- 2 trial.
The
open day was with the theme;“A new intervention to improve maternal and child
health.”
The
aimed of these PregnAnZ1-2 trials was to address a global health priority by
improving maternal and neonatal health.
The
new trial has been designed to evaluate the effect of the intervention in
reducing neonatal mortality.
To
accomplish this goal, the trial aims to recuit 12,500 women during labour, half
of them in The Gambia and the other half in Burkina Faso.
The
recruitment of study participants is expected to start in August 2017, and will
last for approximately three years.
The
open day ceremony was an exciting opportunity to engage with the community to
inform them about these potential new interventions for improvements in
maternal and child health.
In
delivering a speech on the occasion, the director of health services Dr Momodou
Lamin Waggeh, said the day was meant to commemorate an initiative striving to
ease the burden of disease in the communities, especially in those vulnerable
populations such as mothers and infants.
He
said the new intervention was for decreasing maternal and neonatal infection as
well as improving maternal and child health.
“This
intervention is being investigated through a study undertaken by the MRC at the
Serrekunda Health Cenre and Bundung Maternal and Child Hospital,” he said.
According
to Mr Waggeh, the trial was a testament to the longstanding collaboration
between the government of The Gambia, the MRC and the broader community.
Also
speaking was the MRC Unit-The Gambia director, Prof Umberto D. Alessandre,
who commended the community of Serrekunda, staff of Serrekunda Health Centre and
the National Assembly member for the area for supporting the project within
their community.
He
said the whole idea of the project was to see how to support the mothers to
protect the child and reduce maternal mortality.
He
said the aim was to make MRC-The Gambia as the hub for training in the whole
West African region.
