By: Mariama Njie
Dr Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, minister of health has said that malaria is responsible for lots of deaths in both children and adults in the country.
“Of recent we have seen a spike in the incident of malaria across the length and breadth of this country which is usual after heavy rains and we can all attest that this year the rain has been very heavy, which lead to high yield in crop production,” he said.
But it has another side effect that is the for refraction and more procreation of mosquitos thereby increasing the incidents of malaria. “
Hon. Samateh, who was speaking at the Official Launching of the Fogging Machine in Banjul, stated that the fogging machine will be used to spray the city of Banjul, other villages and towns in the country, to get rid of mosquitos.
He called for more efforts to tackle malaria disease in the country, but added: “the Gambia has done very well when it comes to dealing with malaria. We are working very hard to eliminate malaria from the source of this country but of course we cannot do that without dealing with the mosquitos. “
“Unfortunately, there are a lot of breeding grounds for mosquitos in Banjul and in the whole country but as the drainage system is improving. If we see the machine that we are launching today, we see this with some degree of nostalgia, when we were young kids Banjul used to have similar machines and used to be sprayed in evenings, which had disappeared for so many years,” he added.
Very soon again we will see the health inspectors in towns inspecting the compounds, markets , public places and streets to make sure they are all clean, he said.