By San.Joseph Nor
The current outbreak of Cholera in some States in Nigeria today is linked to insanitary conditions and habits.The potential causes of this disease include drinking water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium,the source of the contamination is usually the feces of an infected person and the disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and drinking water coupled with unhygienic habits.
The recent outbreak of the disease in some States in Nigeria reflects the neglected attention given to sanitation in the Country and the role of Sanitary officers currently referred to as Environmental Health Officers.
Recall the good old days of Wole Wole,Duban Gari,etc were sanitary officers were revered and given proper attention,most of this sanitary related diseases were minimal,this was achieved through house to house and market inspections,this averted and prevented the outcome of this diseases currently ravaging our country today. The reverse is however the case today,the sanitary officers profession has been neglected,the few trained ones have not been engaged for over a decade now.
The World Health requirements ratio for efficient Environmental Health practice is one Health Officer to 8000 persons.Funny enough this standard has not been adhere to in this country,almost all the States,Local Government including FCT have very few sanitary officers to carryout environmental health activities. This is indeed worrisome,if we most get it right, there’s an urgent need to bring back our sanitary officers to perform their statutory role of Sanitary inspections, ensuring that every household has a toilet, protection of water sources,proper disposal of waste and sewage and general health education.
All the tiers of Government in Nigeria must as a matter of urgency massively engage sanitary officers and provide all the needed incentives in order to avert further outbreaks of communicable diseases in the country,prevention as the saying goes is far better than cure.
