Dr Jane Maina made this call on Wednesday at Yalal Tankong Jalal in the North Bank Region, as she paid a visit to see progress being made by public health officials currently on Mass Drug Administration campaign - the three most high risks endemic districts in the North Bank Region.
Dr Maina described the ongoing mass campaign against schisto as crucial in protecting the community and reducing the burden of the disease especially in the six most high risk targeted regions of the country.
“And we also want to participate in the fight towards the elimination of schistosomiasis,” she said.
The disease, she added, is fairly prevalent especially in the six most high risk targeted and within the aged groups 0-14 years and also among the adult population, who have occupations that expose them to contaminated water bodies.
“The exposure is through drinking contaminated water and being inside contaminated water as these worms live in water,” she said.
The WHO Country rep assured that the medicines have been proven to be “very effective” in the treatment of schisto with “very minimal” side effects.
She pointed out that the drugs currently being administered have been tested in other African countries and proven to be “effective and safe”.
“Sometimes these side effects may be related to some other unknown reasons within the beneficiary,” she added.
To this end, she appeals to communities to volunteer and participate fully in the ongoing MDA to eliminate this debilitating disease in the country.
Also speaking, Bala Jatta, programme manager for Neglected Tropical Disease at the Ministry, acknowledged the importance of the ongoing campaign, recalling that in 2015, the Ministry did a nationwide mapping to look at the burden of schisto across the country.
“Because if you want to do an intervention, you have to do a baseline survey to know the magnitude of the problem,” she said.
Jatta noted that after the mapping, cumulatively as a country they recorded 4% as endemicity, but when it is trickled down to regions and districts, just as the ongoing campaign is targeting 27 districts, they recorded more than 10% endemicity in all those areas.
He said it was that survey that warranted them to conduct the Mass Drug Administration campaign to prevent people from being infected with the parasitic worms that cause the disease.
Lamin J. Jobarteh, Regional Principal Public Health Officer, North Bank East, spoke about the gains made in the campaign against schisto in parts of North Bank Region.
He said the disease is also a problem in the region affecting the health of children and even adults, adding that it is due to movement of people and the availability of fresh waters in the area.
Jobarteh revealed that during the campaign they targeted 99,287 in the whole three high risk districts of Upper Badibou, Central Badibou and Sabach Sanjal Districts.
As the campaign rolls out across the three identified districts, Jobarteh sounded optimistic that the teams would achieve significant gains in the coming days.
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