The Gambia, on Monday April 7, joined the rest of the world in commemorating World health day. The occasion was used as an opportunity to draw worldwide attention to the importance of global health. This year’s celebration focuses on the need to “protect health from the adverse effects of climate change.”

Speaking at the commemoration ceremony, Dr Malick Njie, Secretary of state for Health and Social Welfare, said that climate change has been taking place slowly for centuries but it has recently taken a worsening and drastic shape due to the recent increase in human activities that disturbed the natural climate pattern.

“The government of The Gambia under the leadership of Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, and my department of state will always put human’ health and well being at the heart of climate change policy, and renew efforts to protect health through achieving the millennuim development goals”. he said.

According to SoS Njie, World Health day 2008 provides the occasion not just to highlight the magnitude of the problem, but also to bring all stakeholders together in The Gambia to apply solutions that work, as climate change will only respond to nations, and to people acting in concerted efforts.

Deputising for Dr Luis G Sambou, WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Nestor Shivuto, WHO residence representative in The Gambia, said that in the African region, the priority will be to support countries to develop their capacities to assess and manage the adverse health impact of climate change.

The United Nations framework convention on climate change describes it as man made since it is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere observed over comparable time periods, he said.