By: IndyPress News Desk
A Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Biotechnology in the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Professor Iruka Nwamaka Okeke has called on policymakers in Nigeria to confront and address the noticeable gaps in water, sanitation and hygiene noting that countries where access to improved sanitation is difficult, have the highest death rates from diarrhoeal diseases.
She made the call on Thursday 21st November 2024, while delivering the 567th Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan on behalf of the Faculty of Pharmacy.
The lecture was entitled, “Genomic Revelations: Messages in the Genetic Material of Our Bacterial Adversaries.”
Professor Okeke noted with regret that Nigeria tops the list of countries with the highest death rates as a result of poor access to improved sanitation.
She, therefore, charged all stakeholders to unrelentingly provide simple solutions that will eliminate faeco-oral diseases even if the infrastructures required to implement them take longer to uild than an election cycle.
She submitted that WASH deficits account for more than just enteric diseases.
She said that it was unconscionable that a quarter of a million deaths associated with antimicrobial resistance occur because of inadequate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Nigeria given that as many as 48 million Nigerians use open defecation some or all of the time.
The Inaugural Lecturer said whilst scientists continue to work tirelessly to develop vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, significant drop in disease burden will only occur when all Nigerians have access to and can drink safe water free of harmful bacteria and can safely dispose of human waste.
Professor Okeke used the opportunity of the lecture to re-articulate recent recommendations made in the Lancet AMR series, which were presented to and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September, 2024.
She said that the recommendations were aimed at achieving a 10% reduction in mortality due to antimicrobial resistance, a 20% reduction in inappropriate human use of antimicrobials and a 30% reduction in inappropriate non-human use of antimicrobial by the year 2030.
She said to get to these 10/20/30 targets, Nigeria needs to improve infection prevention and control in health facilities, extend vaccines to the unreached and deliver effective and permanent solutions to the problem of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.
She said the optimal use of vaccines can prevent deaths due to antimicrobial resistance and many deaths caused by the specific diseases against which each vaccine protects.
The inaugural lecture was the seventeenth in the series of inaugural lectures for 2023/2024 academic session.
Credit: UI Directorate of Public Communication
