Empower Yourself With Primary School Hygiene To Prevent Ebola

Ebola pandemic has silver lining. Renew general cleanliness learned in primary school (Imototo). We are not helpless, daily cleaning and maintenance has eluded us for a long time since health inspectors have been decommissioned. Those that are too young to remember may ask their parents.

Gutters on the streets and inside our homes were inspected to make sure there was no breeding stagnant water for mosquitoes. Actually, it prevented other bacteria and parasites.

Nigerians can make business out of anything, which is why it is surprising that the Country is not the richest in the world. All of a sudden because of Ebola fake and borderline effective products sprung up. People were even reluctant to shake hands and if they do, would wash their hands immediately. Many types of designer water came out apart from Sapele water, prayer and holy water that are different but good for Holy Ghost. We need more than prayers right now.

This sudden consciousness is not amongst the people on the streets alone. European, American and African hospitals knew the rate of reinfection during patients stay was too high to be proud of and totally unacceptable. Studies indicated that simple hand washing as often as possible in hospitals cut down dramatically the rate of patients' reinfections. That is why you find in most reputable hospitals around the world, sanitizers on all walls within reasonable distance.

Apart from generators, our hospitals spend good money out of their budget buying portable water, even for operations. It is so disgraceful, many cannot mention it in any civil gathering. When some physicians and nurses say it, some of us out of shame deny it and contradict them as if they are lying. What is there to lie about since that is the condition they have to work in?

Clean water has become a luxury and most people in Africa, including the rich, have no access to running water in their homes. Indeed, young men and women, having their own children claim they cannot remember anytime their Country had running water. This is sad because of the number of diseases we can prevent, or do not have to deal with, like Ebola, influenza, river blindness and environmental poisoning like lead, mercury, arsenic and many more.

The point here is that we cannot overemphasize the need for safe water in our environment. The rich only solve half of the problem and may be even getting into more trouble with their boreholes at the back of the house and suck-away in the front of the house. Too close for comfort and contamination. The basis of health must include clean drinking water and enough to wash and clean in the house. Frequent washing of hands in this case is not compulsive habit.

How we exchange BODILY FLUID? Think we already know when and how to WASH OUR HANDS. •Before, during, and after preparing food. More so at Mama-put-E and restaurants

•Before and after eating food

•Before and after caring for someone who is sick

•Before and after treating a cut or wound

•After using the toilet wash both hands

•After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet

•After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing into your arm or napkin

•After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste even with gloves

•After touching garbage

For more see CDC guidelines

These are simple habits we were taught in primary schools while growing up. We prioritize money for everything we cannot maintain but very little for what we can easily do ourselves. Nobody claims that sometimes politicians and administrators are not overwhelmed, but they have to do much more than what steal money for foreign countries that take care of their people and sanitize the environment. Sanitation day is a step in the right direction.

It is even more important about the food we eat. Africans generally like well-cooked or well-done food. Others eat rare or uncooked fish or meat. One of our young men got sick with unspecified illness and his kidney almost failed. He had to go on dialysis for a while before he finally recovered. Cutting a long story short, he had a habit of eating sushi, Japanese delicacy of uncooked fish and rice dipped in green paper, with his friends.

Chinekeme, see me see trouble. The mum and dad eat bokoto, edo, saki, sawa, panla, orisirisi in edikaiekong with pounded yam or suya. But these young people are grownups, many with their own money. They claimed their parents eat worse food than them as (bush meat) wild animals without knowing source of preparation. It is true that some undomesticated animals do carry exotic diseases. They have to be carefully avoided or make sure, we cook them “dead” again.

Many of us do not eat dogs as some eat lokili (bigger dog) but hate okete (bush rat), others hate pig a delicacy for many. Monkeys and fruit bats in thick forests carry Ebola virus, but few people dare eat. Situations change in the face of hunger, wild meats could be deadly. Other religious folks eat halal or kosher meat. Few that dislikes pig love ham, sausage and bacon only on a fly!

Better to be saved than be sorry or dead. Chickens carry some deadly bacteria, without health and farm inspectors many businesses would rather sell them to unsuspecting consumers than destroy them. They are not covered by private or government insurance and they have to make a profit and pay their employee. Consumers are the last destination of these foods. So what you do with your food depends on you. So is birds' avian flu virus. Restaurant hopping is a new story.

Let us hope we learn from this Ebola pandemic especially in African countries. Prevention is always better and cheaper than cure, unless we practice what we preach, another disaster may be around the corner.