Diarrhoea kills 194,000 Nigerian kids every year –UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund has said that diarrhoea kills about 194,000 children under the age of five every year in Nigeria.

In a statement in Lagos on Monday, the global body disclosed that 88 per cent of diarrhoeal deaths could be attributed to unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene.

It stated, “As the world celebrates the fifth annual Global Hand Washing Day, we should emphasis the fact that the very simple act of hand washing with soap can save hundreds of thousands of children who needlessly die every year.

“As diarrhoeal diseases are basically faecal-oral in nature, one of the simplest and most inexpensive barriers to infection is hand washing with soap or ash at critical times, such as before handling food and after defecation or changing a diaper.”

UNICEF stated that safe sanitation practices through promotion and proper hand washing have proven to be the most cost-effective public health intervention against diarrhoeal diseases.

The UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Mr. Ibrahima Fall, said, “Considering the simplicity and the criticality of hand washing with soap to the survival, especially of our children, we have to move beyond the commemoration of Global Hand Washing Day from a one-day event to effecting a more systematic mechanisms for regular practice of hand washing among children, families and communities.

“Hand washing with soap has become all the more necessary in view of the on-going floods in a number of states contaminating water supplies.”

Also, the Marketing Officers Unilever Nigeria Plc, Mr. David Okeme, said to reduce deaths in under-five children in Nigeria, there was need to promote hand washing in schools and communities across the country.

He said, “Statistics shows that about two million children die before the age of five and this occurs mostly in Africa. Coming home to Nigeria, facts show that about  200,000 to 300,000 children die every year before the age of five. More than half of these deaths are preventable by just simply washing hands with soap. We must promote strategies that save lives.”

According to him, the organisation will be distributing 15,000 hand washing tools to schools across the country.

The National President, Medical Women’s Association, Dr. Christina Campbell, who spoke at the party organised for children under the age of five by Unilever in Lagos on Sunday, charged government to improve sanitary conditions in schools and communities to reduce infant deaths caused by diarrhoea.

Campbell said parents, caregivers and guardians should be enlightened on hand washing strategy which could save more lives than one single vaccine or medical intervention.