Environmental awareness crucial in epidemic prevention


…UNILEVER promotes hand washing campaign


Since the onset of rains, various states in the country have reported cases of incessant flooding, which has not only affected households but further expose inhabitants within the affected areas to environmental and public health challenges. However, the practice of open defecation, unscientific mode of disposal system, man-made mountains of litters, and over-flowing gutters, is gradually become a worrisome trend in semi urban areas.


Aside this, sewage which is sometimes disposed off directly to nearby low lying areas or to receiving water bodies has more often than not result in a situation whereby such unhygienic practices of disposal have caused growth of different disease carrying vectors, polluted different water bodies where water could be sourced and led to the spread of water borne diseases.

 
Giving the public health implications of these actions, public health experts in conjunction with Unilever have urged Nigerians to pledge to defeat diarrhea, the second most common cause of death in children under five years old, by avoiding unhygienic practices and promoting hand washing with water and soap.

 
In an interview with Babayemi Osinaike, Consultant Paediatrician/Head, Olikoye Ransome Kuti, Children Emergency Room, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), idi-araba, disclosed that part of the factors that drive the transmission of the disease include maintaining good personal hygiene and lack of awareness on benefits of hand washing with water and soap.

 
While stating that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) estimate that diarrhoea kills 1.5 million children annually, Osinaike noted that about 150, 000 children under the age of five children die annually in Nigeria.

 
According to Osinaike “children are more vulnerable to getting diarrhea because the bodyweight of children has higher amount of water than that of adults so have greater risk of life threatening dehydration. Don’t forget that daily water need of young children is proportionally more than adults hence children have higher metabolic rates and their kidneys are less capable of conserving water.

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