Pockets of cholera outbreaks are routine in parts of the states and often nipped in the bud before they turn epidemic.
But the recent interplay of poverty, poor sanitation, unaffordable cost of food, the stark absence of sanitation and hygiene infrastructure is fast pushing the spread beyond remedial efforts, with a major epidemic already on the cusp.
At the Tanke part of Ilorin, in Kwara State, an elderly woman was busy picking used pet bottles near a dumpsite. Findings later showed that the bottles were soon deployed to package Zobo and blended tiger nut drinks – both locally produced beverages for sale to unsuspecting members of the public. For instance, sachet water used to be sold at N5. It is now N100 for three sachets! “Someone who cannot do this would drink water from a river or other unsanitary sources. And we know that people readily defecate in rivers. So, this kind of disease can spread easily due to poverty.
Despite efforts to control it, cholera has remained a major public health challenge in many developing countries, including Nigeria, where the major cholera in history was recorded in 2021 with over 106,000 cases, and over 3,000 deaths. As the country gets into a race against time to contain an epidemic, the scenario is further complicated by the prohibitive cost of living, which has forced a greater majority of Nigerians to devise ways of staying afloat in an economy that appears to be defying prescribed medications, and also showing no signs of healing soon.
With a high prevalence of food-borne illness due to a range of factors, Nigeria as a developing nation as well as the most populous nation in Africa has enormous challenges connected with food safety culture. This makes food safety a critical issue, but little to no attention is paid. Studies have further shown that street food vendors in the country adopt poor hygiene and sanitary practices, even as up to 60 per cent of food vendors prepare their foods in unhygienic environments, fail to dress appropriately as well as fail to store leftovers properly. Above all, their sheer lack of basic knowledge and training in hygiene poses serious health risks to Nigerian consumers.
“Poverty, high cost of foodstuff is putting a whole lot of people into a situation where they just have to work with what they know they can get. Before now, people could still go to the market to buy food and get what they needed to cook, but currently, as someone told me, it is cheaper to patronise roadside vendors than to cook in your house; I don’t know how true that is,” he said.
Speaking on the consequences of eating contaminated food leading to food-borne diseases, Adeniran mentioned said diseases like dysentery; typhoid, hepatitis A&E, and cholera can cause immediate death, especially among children below five years of age due to underdeveloped immune systems. “The major issue that we should be concerned with as public health experts are food-borne infections and some of these infections are epidemic, increasing among the populace.
Polychlorinated biphenyls are industrial compounds produced between 1929 and 1979. Its physical characteristics and lack of flavour or fragrance are comparable to those of regular vegetable oils. Because of their toxicity and potential health risks associated with exposure, they were outlawed in the United States.
Also, in a bid to save time and satisfy mounting demands, some food vendors are tempted to adopt unhealthy methods to make food cook faster such as using analgesics, including paracetamol tablets to tenderise meat, or adding nails to a boiling pot of beans to make it soften fast. A consultant Nephrologist at the Lagos State University College of Medicine, Prof. Olugbenga Awobusuyi, had warned that the abuse of pain-relieving drugs could result in kidney damage.
In a city like Lagos, she said: “When you get to the markets, you see people washing fruits and vegetables with water that is from questionable sources. Sometimes, traders can inadvertently wash vegetables with water that is infected with cholera, and their customers buy them and can get infected through that process.
While advising Nigerians to stop eating uncooked foods and vegetables for the time being “because you don’t know where they are coming from, and the hygiene practice of the people peddling it,” he added: “Wash your hands as frequently as possible, maintain appropriate hygiene, be sure of the sources of your drinking water, and if you are eating outside, you have to be sure that whatever you are eating is well-cooked.
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