The overall goal of the awareness was to build national and regional emergency workforces among ECOWAS Member States in case of a major public health epidemic.
Sedjno Catraye, in delivering the opening remarks on behalf of Dr Aissi Melchior, Director General of WAHO disclosed that The Gambia is one of countries in West Africa at high risk of occurrence of public health emergencies.
He said the first case of Covid-19 in The Gambia was declared on March 17, 2020 and as at September 25, 2022, a total of 12,508 confirmed cases including 372 deaths (CFR = 2.9) were recorded.
“The country also presents risks of the occurrence of other outbreaks and other hazards which pose significant threat to the health of Gambians. Those include floods, gas or fuel explosions, and other chemical accidents. We are also facing an unexplained outbreak of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) among children,” he outlined.
To strengthen preparedness and response in the country, he said Multi-Disciplinary Rapid Response Teams (RRT) are being trained at national and sub-regional levels.
He said the World Health Organisation regional office in collaboration with the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) are supporting the establishment of national emergency management mechanisms for public health emergencies.
Lazaro Martinez, WHO representative said their aim is to strengthen the health system and have people mobilised first, fast and give culturally adapted response to make the country and its health system the ability to respond to any kind of health challenges.
Karamba Keita, Deputy Permanent Secretary Technical who doubles as WAHO relation officer in The Gambia said the workshop was meant to strengthen participants’ knowledge to be able to respond to any emergencies.
