By Omar Bah
The deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Janko Jimbara has said that despite the distance between the Democratic Republic of Congo and The Gambia, the country has increased its border surveillance in the wake of the Ebola outbreak in DRC.
Mr Jimbara, who is also the focal person for West African Health Organisation, WAHO said though there is less likelihood that the outbreak may spread beyond DRC, they are not leaving anything to chance.
“This is just to ensure that we are safe,” Jimbara said on the sidelines of the ongoing regional health ministers’ meeting in Banjul.
He said the country is eternally vigilant in border surveillance to stop the Ebola virus from spreading into the country.
“We have some facilities at the points of entries that actually screen people coming to this country. Anybody coming to the country through the borders is screened and in some instances people’s temperatures are taken but notwithstanding our borders are quite porous,” he stated.
DPS Jimbara said WAHO has also begun communicating to member countries in relation to the Ebola outbreak in Congo in the form of a weekly bulleting and that the Gambia is also collecting surveillance report which is summited to WAHO on a weekly basis.
