The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Hand washing

  • UNILAG medical students get hand-washing products

    Cleanmax Industries has donated  hand-washing liquid products to the Nigerian Medical Laboratory Science Students Association, College of Medicine, University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter.

    It was during the sixth Annual Healthweek of the association.

     Cleanmax Industries Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Inibokun Okafor, said  said the donation was the commitment of the firm to enlighten people to inculcate good hygiene practices, especially hand washing to prevent infections. the gesture was to encourage hand washing culture among the students to avoid the spread of diseases given their peculiar professional and training environment.

    Mrs. Okafor said: “The health and well-being of every Nigerian is of tremendous importance to the future of the country and simple task of frequent hand-washing with Cleanmax Sparkle hand-washing liquid will help to stem the tide of the spread of diseases that could be easily be contacted through physical contact,”

    She said firm is a responsive and recognises the role of medical laboratory professionals in caring for sick and injured persons.

    Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists Council of Nigeria National President, Alhaji Toyosi Raheem, bemoaned activities of quacks in the professional practice.

    Chairman, College of Medicine of University of Lagos chapter of Nigerian Medical Laboratory Science Students Association, Miss. Fehintola Odutuyo, who received the items, praised Cleanmax Industries for the  gesture.

  • Group urges children on hand washing

    Group urges children on hand washing

    A Non-Government Organisation (NGO), Save the Children (SC), has advised  children to imbibe the habit of wasing their hands to reduce the transmission of infection and diseases.

    The organisation gave the charge at a one-day event to mark this year’s global hand-washing day at the CMS Primary School, Bariga, Lagos.

    Hand washing is part of the Stop Diarrhoea Initiative (SDI) of the NGO, through which it reaches out to about one million school children yearly in Nigeria.

    With the theme: Making hand washing a habit, about 600 children who participated were taught how to wash their hands and its importance.

    The Behaviour Change Communication Adviser, Nwamaka Efionu, said: “Washing hands with soap can help prevent a lot of communicable diseases.

    “We don’t need to wash our hands only when there is a fear of an illness, hand washing should be a habit which everyone must imbibe. Children are agents of change, once they learn like this through peer awareness programmes like this, they go out and teach their peers and that is how the habit is spread. We have about 20 schools, from Shomolu and Bariga who came to participate in the hand washing event.”

    Marketing Manager, West Africa Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (RB), Bamigbaiye- Elatuyi Omotola, said: “RB is glad to partner with Save the Children on ‘Stop Diarrhoea initaiative’. We have been in the forefront of health and hygiene and are partnering with organisations to increase health hygiene habits, Diarrhoea is a killer of children under five and the habit of hand washing should be practised while they are young. Today’s event is an opportunity to bring to the public and school children the essence of developing the habit of hand washing. RB goes to schools every year and teaches one million school children between the ages of three and nine about hand washing. This is because diarrhoea is a killer of children under five and the habit of hand washing should be practised while they are young to forestall transmission to themselves orally or to others.”

    On the impact of hand washing on children, she said hand washing has reduced diarrhoea cases by one third.

    Omotola said: “We reach to 16 geo-political zones in Nigeria and reach out to every school in each zone. That way we are able to reach far and wide, on the average, we reach out to about 500 schools on the average both public and private.  We teach them hand washing, we give them soaps, health book and parents are involved; we give them leaflets to take home, this way the parent, child and school are already into the habit of hand washing.”

  • NOA mounts hand-washing campaign

    NOA mounts hand-washing campaign

    The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has urged students and pupils in the state to practice proper hygiene to prevent the spread of various infectious diseases.

    Ebonyi State Director of the agency, Dr Emma Abah gave the advice while speaking to students of Urban Primary School, Abakaliki, during a visit to the school on the occasion of global hand-washing day.

    He said the celebration is an oppurtunity to design, test and replicate creative ways to encourage people to wash their hands with soap at critical times such as after using the toilet or before contact with food.

    Dr. Abba said for hand washing to be effective, it must be practised consistently.

    He said, “Therefore, parents and teachers should cultivate the habit of hand washing from the early age and linked them unconsciously into the children as everyday activities in their life time.”

    “Good hand washing is the first line  spread of many illness- from common cold to serious infections such as meningitis, the flu, brochiotis, hepatitis A, and most type of infectious diarrhoea and also reduces the rate of immortality arising from these diseases”.

    “The few seconds you spend at the sink could save you trips to doctor’s office.”

    Some of the students appreciated the NOA for the sensitisation and promised to keep washing their hands as directed.

  • Hand washing essential for public health, says FG

    Hand washing essential for public health, says FG

    Hand washing with soap can reduce deaths from water- borne diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid fever and pneumonia prevalent in rural communities, the federal government has said.

    The Minister of Water Resources Suleiman Adamu, said this in Abuja during a visit to some secondary schools to mark this year’s Global Hand Washing Day with the theme: “Make hand washing a habit.”

    Global Hand Washing Day is celebrated every October 15.

    The minister said 1.7 million children die globally from diarrhoea and pneumonia annually, adding that a good hand washing habit could significantly prevent these deaths.

    He said: “Hand washing with soap represents a cornerstone of public health and can be considered an affordable, accessible “do-it-yourself” vaccine for sanitation and hygiene related diseases like diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever and pneumonia which are prevalent in our communities.”

    The minister said the theme for this year’s event is in line with the “Partnership for Extended Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) Programme which will be launched soon by the government.

    According to him, the PEWASH project is aimed at encouraging all stakeholders to make access to water and sanitation a priority in the country.

    He stated that cultivating a good hand washing habit would help keep children in schools, adding that 242 million school days were missed globally due to diarrhoea alone.

    Adamu said: “Hand washing is a choice that everyone can make multiple times a day.

    “When we choose hand washing, we are choosing to create a healthier environment not only for ourselves, but also for those around us.

    “Good hygiene practices must be a habit which requires choosing to perform them on a regular basis.

    “We should choose hand washing not only on Global Hand Washing Day but every day.

    “Each year, 242 million school days are missed due to diarrhea and an estimated 15 per cent of patients globally develop one or more infections in hospitals.”

     

  • FG to Nigerians: Make hand washing a habit

    FG to Nigerians: Make hand washing a habit

    The Minster of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, has called on Nigerians to develop the culture of hand washing to reduce spread of water borne diseases.

    Adamu made the call in Abuja on Thursday as part of activities to commemorate the 2016 Global Hand Washing Day, with the theme, `Make Hand Washing a Habit’, slated for October 15.

    He said hand washing with soap represented a cornerstone of public health, saying it could be considered an affordable, accessible `do-it-yourself’ vaccine for sanitation and hygiene.

    He said the theme, was in line with the soon to be unveiled Partnership for Extended Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) Programme, which aims at encouraging all stakeholders to make access to water and sanitation a priority.

    He said globally, 1.7 million children reportedly died from diarrhoea and pneumonia annually, saying a good hand washing habit could significantly prevent these deaths.

    He said cultivating a good hand washing habit would help keep children in schools, saying that 242 million school days were missed due to diarrhoea alone.

    “Hand washing is a choice that everyone can make multiple times a day, when we choose hand washing; we are choosing to create a healthier environment not only for ourselves, but also for those around us.

    “Good hygiene practices must be a habit which requires choosing to perform them on a regular basis, we should choose hand washing not only on Global hand washing day, but every day,” he said.

    He said the ministry, in partnership with development partners, has trained hygiene education teachers, youth corps members and other stakeholders in the six area councils of the FCT on hygiene promotion.

    Adamu said the ministry would also carry out group hand washing demonstration in schools to encourage children to be change agents to pass the message of behavioural change.

    Mr Emmanuel Awe, Director, Water Quality Control and Sanitation, said the day was an opportunity to engage children as change agents in reducing spread of preventable diseases.

    He stressed the need to sensitise and advocate for more awareness from all stakeholders towards promoting hygiene messages.

    Mr Kanan Nadar, UNICEF Chief of WASH, said the agency has carried out group hand washing demonstration with the use of tippy taps in 15 schools in Chikun Local Government of Kaduna.

    He said part of activities to commemorate the day was to carry hygiene messages to 1,800 schools nationwide, and also demonstrate proper means of hand washing through the use of tippy taps.

    Nadar called on the three tiers of government to increase budgetary allocations for scaling up access to WASH in the country.

    Mr Micheal Ojo, Country Director, WaterAid Nigeria, called for behavioural change, saying Nigerians need to know why hand washing is important.

    He said there was the need for hand washing facilities to be made available in all hospitals, saying Nigerians would live healthier and better.

     

  • NGO advocates improved hand washing habit

    The Save the Children, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which is committed to promoting children’s healthy living, has joined children and adults in Shomolu Local Government Area of Lagos State to celebrate this year’s Global Hand Washing Day.

    The group said it is committed to sensitising Nigerians to proper hygiene practices and to raise people’s awareness to the effect that washing hands with soap is a powerful public health intervention.

    With a theme “Raise a Hand for Hygiene,” the event was organised to promote improved hygiene practices and draw attention to the world’s enormous sanitation challenges.

    Speaking at the event, campaign Coordinator of Save the Children, Adeyoju Olukemi said: “Through the stop diarrhea project in Shomolu and Berger, we are calling on all relevant stakeholders in the project to promote hand washing with soap to reduce diarrhea in children and implement large-scale hand washing interventions by combining the expertise and resources of soap industry with the facilities and resources of government.”

    She explained that hand washing plays an important role in the efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with regard to health improvements, education, poverty reduction, child mortality, effective use of water supply and sanitation services as agreed to by member countries of the United Nations (UN), including Nigeria.

    “According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), diarrhea kills almost two million children every year, making it the second leading child killer diseases worldwide. A simple hygiene habit could halve this figure,” Olukemi said.

    She added that the inaugural Global Hand Washing Day puts this often disregarded hygiene challenge at the forefront of the international agenda while keeping the children at the heart of each country’s national local initiative.

    The Assistant Director, National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Shomolu Local Government Area, Olaniyan Aderemi Ezekiel commended the efforts of Save the Children in putting up a praiseworthy event.

    He said: “With the outbreak of Ebola that God helped us in curtailing, a lot of awareness has been created on hand washing culture. Impacting hand washing culture in the lives of our people within Shomolu has improved because it is a habit that people have not been practising prior to the outbreak of Ebola.”

    He noted that after the outbreak of Ebola, the NOA has made it a point of duty to interact with people on the importance of hand washing and sanitation, which has changed the habits of many people.

    “We meet and engage people, through our community support brigadiers and the sanitary inspectors who go round to sensitise the populace to the importance of hand washing. We go from market to market, organisations to organisations and groups to groups to engage them on importance of hygiene,” he said.

     

     

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    we are calling on all relevant stakeholders in the project to promote hand washing with soap to reduce diarrhea in children and implement large-scale hand washing interventions by combining the expertise and resources of soap industry with the facilities and resources of government…Impacting hand washing culture in the lives of our people within Shomolu has improved because it is a habit that people have not been practising prior to the outbreak of Ebola

  • Multinationals create awareness on hand washing

    A multinational, Unigloves Medical, in collaboration with other European partners, is set to carry hygiene campaign to schools and hospitals in Nigeria as its own contribution towards the celebration of the yearly Global Handwashing Day which comes up today.

    The multinationals will do this by installing dispensing machines in selected schools and hospitals nationwide, giving students and workers the opportunity to wash their hands with disinfectants and quality solutions produced by the company.

    “This is a way of promoting hygiene among Nigerian children, thereby preventing infections and other diseases,” said Mr. Kevin Onah, managing director, Unigloves Medical.

    Global Handwashing Day (GHD) is a campaign to motivate and mobilise people around the world to improve their handwashing habits by washing their hands with soap at critical moments.

    The campaign was initiated to reduce childhood mortality rates, related respiratory and diarrheal diseases by introducing simple behavioral changes, such as handwashing with soap. This simple, accessible action can, according to research, reduce the rate of mortality from these diseases by between 25 and 50 per cent.

     

  • ‘Hand washing will reduce mortality by 50%’

    ‘Hand washing will reduce mortality by 50%’

    Not less than 3.5 million under-five children die yearly due to preventable deaths from infections, among other causes, especially by poor hand hygiene. This, experts said, can be reduced by 50 per cent by washing the hands regularly with soap and clean water.

    According to the President, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Osahon Enabulele, diarrhoea, typhoid fever, pneumonia and cholera, among other childhood killers can be prevented.

    Enabulele, who spoke at the launch of Reckitt Benckiser’s Dettol antiseptic soap in Lagos, said diseases are easily transmitted from the hand to mouth.

    The NMA President, represented by the Chairman, NMA Committee on Nigeria Medical Students Association (NIMSA) Affairs, Dr Martins Momoh said a lot of diseases can be prevented through a simple and easy step of washing hands with soap and water. “One child dies every 30 seconds from diarrhoea worldwide. Hand washing is among the most effective and least expensive way of stopping germs,” he added.

    He said about three million children across Nigeria have been taught to wash their hands with soap and water. “Research has shown that children develop habits in three weeks, so the company and NMA embarked on a 21 days campaign to instill hand washing morals into them.

    A laboratorian and Deputy Director, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Mr Oyebanji Oyenuga, said the importance of disinfestations cannot be over-emphasised.

    “As a laboratory expert, you wash your hand in every procedure to ensure you prevent germs.I am happy the company is doing that to stop the epidemic. Cholera and diarrhoea among other diseases are transmitted through the hand.”

    Hand washing, he noted, will bring down the rate of pathologies. “Re-introducing this practice will improve overall health of the children and adults,” he added.