On Wednesday 5th December 2007, an open day programme was held at Sukuta Health Centre to thank and inform the host community and the mothers whose infants have participated in MRC studies at the site over the years.
Sukuta women’s kafo (drama group) performing a skit about taking blood samples to diagnose illness
Speakers from the MRC included Professor Tumani Corrah (Unit Director), Professor Hilton Whittle (Emeritus Scientist), Dr Katie Flanagan (Infant Immunologist), Mr Ebrima Touray (Field Supervisor) and Dr Jane Adetifa (Research Clinician). The Gambia Government and Sukuta community were represented by Mr Abdoulie Bojang (Deputy Speaker, House of Assembly), Alhaji Demba Sanyang (Paramount Chief of Sukuta), Alhaji Mamadou Cham Lowe (Alkali of Sukuta), Alhaji Ismaila Baye (Imam of Sukuta), Ms Sally Savage (Department of State for Health Principal Nursing Officer, Sukuta Health Centre) and Mr Ebrima Cham (Sukuta Village Development Committee Chairman).

The MRC’s partnership with Sukuta Health Centre was established in 2002 in order to investigate how the infant immune system develops in response to vaccines and infections encountered in early life. The MRC Sukuta field team works in close collaboration with the health centre staff; the Gambia Government National Extended Programme of Immunisation (EPI) and National Leprosy and TB Control Programme are fully informed and supportive of the research activities that take place.

Since 2002 some 1,300 children have been recruited into studies of infections and vaccines at Sukuta Health Centre. This has led to some breakthroughs in our understanding of the infant immune system. Among these are a better understanding of immunity to the chronic viral infections Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and a greater understanding of the effects that contracting malaria in pregnancy has on the child in early life.

The introduction of routine vaccination in infants in the form of the EPI has had an enormous impact on childhood morbidity and mortality, and the EPI coverage rates in The Gambia are very high. However, the current EPI schedules were recommended over 20 years ago, and it is now generally recognized that it may be time to revise them. In Sukuta one study is investigating the effect of administering a measles vaccine at 4½ months of age in addition to the usual 9 months; another study is investigating how BCG vaccination influences the immune system; and another is looking at how commonly administered vaccines interact with one another.

MRC is committed to continuing its internationally competitive research, developing local science capacity and to ensuring that its research agenda is relevant to Africa’s needs and deliverable. Research in Sukuta is leading the way in studies aimed at improving the existing immunisation schedules.

MRC is particularly grateful to Ms Sally Savage and to the mothers of Sukuta who have enrolled their infants in the various studies over the past six years.