A non-governmental organisation (NGO) has stressed the need to improve the health condition of people living in the rural areas of Lagos State. Sharing With Others says this can be done through the provision of potable water, garbage bins, adequate training for community health workers and the dissemination of health-related information.
Last week, Sharing With Others took its campaign to the Lagos suburb and riverside area of Ibeju Local Government Area to sensitise residents to the benefits of environmental cleanliness and hand washing techniques to prevent communicable diseases.
Many of the residents gathered to listen to Folasade Ogunsola, who is a Prof. of Clinical Microbiology and the first woman Provost of the College of Medicine University of Lagos (CMUL).
She spoke on “Your Life is in Your Hand-The Interplay between the Use of Our Hands and Healthy Living”.
“Out of an estimated 170 million Nigerians, 53-65 million people have no access to drinking water; 33 million engage in open defecation; 60-100 million people have no access to improved sanitation; 194,000 children die annually from diarrhoea and another percentage from other respiratory diseases.
“Also, before aged 70, 80 per cent of the male population and 76 per cent of female have chances of dying from diseases such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease.
Topping the table of killers of toddlers less than five years is malaria. Others are infections; diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS and measles.
“There are 600,000 bacteria living per square inch of the skin of every person. That means, we carry 0.6kg of bacteria at every given time, which can be passed to others through coughing, sneezing, singing, talking and touching others with dirty hands.”
She urged them to regularly wash their hands and bodies and clean their environment to keep their surroundings free of rodents and insects-carriers of such ailments; noting that all have a part to play in ensuring that diseases are prevented by timely visits to the hospital at the slightest symptoms. This, she said, will go a long way in helping them and ensuring better treatment for the diseases.”
She, however, warned that prevention is always better that seeking a cure for diseases.
Chairman, Lagos State chapter of the project, Dr Femi Ogunbekun, a medical doctor and native of Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area who has been practicing for 42 years said the lecture was the 3rd in the series and was aimed at educating the rural and riverside areas on healthy living as well as how to tackle communicable and non-communicable diseases
Another trustee of the initiative and a retired Prof. of French language, Ibiyemi Mojola, said the main thrust of their endeavours is to ensure that the communities are exposed more to how to prevent diseases.
