Dr. Nafisa Biute Shafique made this disclosure recently during her presentation on the State of the Gambian Child and Child Survival Interventions in the country at the second Scientific Conference and AGM of the Pediatric Association of The Gambia (PATG) held at Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre in Bijilo.
She underscored the importance of collaboration to achieving positive result, saying they are committed to aligning their efforts with the National Development Programme as well as the Sustainable Development Goals to uphold the right of every child whether born in Banjul or in deep rural areas like CRR north. “Every child has the same right to survive and thrive.”
The Gambia, she went on, has made notable progress in maternal and child health, saying from 2013 to 2020 maternal mortality rate declined from 433 to 289 per 100,000 live births.
“The child mortality rate for children-aged (1-5 years) fell from 20 to 15 per 1000 live birth. It’s time to celebrate. However, why this is important for us to get together to understand, where we can even do it better. We are still far from the SDG target of 70 per 100,000 live births - maternal mortality and also 12 per 1000 live for child mortality. We are on track but we are quite far from the SDG targets.”
Speaking earlier, Adama Sallah, chairman of the Pediatric Association of The Gambia, also spoke about the gains made in technical and scientific knowledge, which he said, has contributed to improved pediatric care in the country.
He noted that it is important to recognise and celebrate these spectacular advances in pediatrics in recent times, including but not limited to the development of simple but appropriate treatment method and technology, for example oral rehydration etc.
However, Sallah also talked about their challenges and set backs such as persistent infection to increasing microbial resistance among a host of others.
