Abuja, March 23, 2022 (NAN) The Federal Ministry of Water Resources has commenced routine training for Health Education Officers (HEOs) towards ending cholera outbreaks in Open Defecation Free (ODF) Local Government Areas (LGAs).
The Desk Officer Hygiene in the ministry, Mrs Ayaba Kogbara, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
Kogbara said that the ministry was concerned that open defecation free LGAs were still reporting cholera cases.
She said the situation necessitated the immediate deployment of its personnel to carry out hygiene training in communities in the local government areas.
Kogbara recalled that many communities were still reporting cholera cases due to non-adherence to hygiene, saying handwashing was critical to breaking faecal-oral transmission of diseases.
“Handwashing is the first barrier to disease transmission. We must build a barrier to cholera through construction of toilets.
“Food hygiene is crucial; cover your food properly from flies, and make sure they are cooked properly,’’ she said.
NAN reports that the 2021 Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) cholera situation report showed that on Jan. 2, a total of 111,062 suspected cases including 3,604 deaths were reported from 33 states and the FCT.
Four states reported the following cases: Bauchi (19,558), Jigawa (15,141) Kano (12,116) and Zamfara (11,931).
Eleven local government areas across five states with four in Bauchi, four in Zamfara, one in Kano, one in Katsina and one in Borno, reported more than 1,000 cases.
Kogbara said due to the cholera outbreak last year, a five-day training was organised by the ministry in the open defecation free LGAs in Jigawa.
According to her, the training was aimed at re-exposing the LGA WASH department staff to key hygiene activities in community and school, and new skills on hygiene promotion.
She added that the measure was in order to move the open defecation free LGAs and communities to total sanitation.
“At the end of the training, the participants came up with an action plan for the implementation of hygiene promotion in their LGAs,’’ she said.
The desk officer noted that hygiene promotion had five domains including, personal hygiene with emphases on hand washing with soap and water as well as safe water chain management.
Others are: safe excreta disposal, including child’s excreta; food and home hygiene; and environmental hygiene, including liquid and solid waste.
She added that plans were on-going to train personnel in all open defecation free LGAs, saying hygiene promotion was to ensure total sanitation and mitigate cholera and other disease outbreaks.
