Dr Tamsir Mbowe, Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare has said that both the civil works and the equipment phase of the construction of Kuntaur Health Centre will be completed by the end of the year.

He was responding to a question from Ebrima Manneh, NAM for Niani, last Tuesday, during the question and answer session during the third meeting of the National Assembly in the third legislative session 2007.
Commenting on the issue of Operation Clean the Nation, SoS Mbowe said that his department uses a combination of different strategies such as malaria case management, malaria in pregnancy (IPT), ITN, Vector control (ie larviciding, thermal fogging, environmental management), etc, which complement each other in the fight and control of malaria in the country.

SoS Mbowe went on, “The monthly cleansing of the environment entails measures aimed at discouraging the breeding of the malaria vector”.
According to him, every year his Department of State embarks on a mass application of bio-larvicide in rice fields throughout the country to kill the larval stage of mosquitoes adding that this mass spraying of Banjul and the rice fields will start on the 10th of September and continue for a period of two weeks and will cover the whole country.

Responding to a question from Kebba Touray, National Assembly member for Lower Saloum, on whether there are plans to construct staff quarters for the Balanghar Sub-Dispensary, SoS Mbowe said that the Balanghar Sub-Dispensary is a wing of the Kaur Health Centre adding that this facility was constructed through community efforts and that it was the responsibility of the community to provide accomodation for the staff.
Responding to Lamin Ceesay, NAM for Sami as to when the community would have their health care rights, SoS Mbowe said Sami Pachonki is not a health centre adding that it is a PHC key village clinic run by a Cuban doctor and the facility has always, as in all similar facilities been overseen by a trained community health nurse.

Responding to question from Bora Mass, NAM for Kiang East about plans to upgrade the dispensaries in the provinces to minor health centres, especially Kiang East with its population of about eight to nine thousand inhabitants, with a only dispensary located at Kiaf, SoS Mbowe revealed that Kiaf is a key PHC Villlage, adding that the CHN en Poste attends to patients and is also responsible for other public health concerns.
“The process of upgrading dispensaries to health centres is ongoing. The latest example of this is the Kerr Cherno Health Facility. The facility at Kiaf will be upgraded in due course,” he said.