While in medical school in Nigeria, I learnt a bit about cholera …that it is an infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, and that the main symptoms include profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting, with the management being primarily with oral rehydration therapy (ORT) etc etc. The truth however is that I barely saw a case of cholera while practicing (…while aware of our limited diagnostic capacity). Cholera’s main relevance was in the historical context, and a good examination question.
, disenfranchised. Their
votes do not count. THEY DO NOT MATTER. A truly sad state of affairs.
But we can do something about it. As we move into the election season, lets us ask our politicians what plans they have for providing us with the basics, the very basics. As our president buys 3 jets for the presidential fleet – lets us remind him that people are dying in Nigeria, in 2010 – of cholera! Let us ask the senators representing these areas – where they have been. How often they have raised their voices in protest? If you are reading this blog – you will probably never have a challenge like cholera – but it is still our problem.
Let us put health back on the political agenda!
…aluta
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has…Margaret Mead
Hi
You have written a great piece of work there!
I think the problem stems from the lack of basic necessity of life such clean water. The current and past leaders failed to maintain or improve on the pipe-borne water network established in the major Nigerian cities by the colonialists such that the inhabitants of these cities now depend on water from questionable sources for drinking and other domestic purposes.
I can remember our time in the medical school at one of the premier universities in Eastern Nigeria when we had to resort to collecting water from streams and drainage channels for our domestic use simply because the taps have dried up for months on end and the school authorities could not keep up with supplying water to the large number of students using the water tankers whose source of supply is still questionable. Is that not enough recipe for cholera and other water-borne diseases outbreak and death on a massive scale?
If the water supply in the cities cannot be maintained you can imagine what happens in smaller villages where there are no such infrastructures in place.
Electricity and water are interconnected such that sometimes without one the other cannot function. So sorting out the power problem would help in solving the water supply crises.
I disagree with you that readers of your blog are immune from water-borne diseases unless reading your blog confers some immunity to the reader. We should then recommend or force it on all Nigerians. Yes the class of people reading your blog probably live in cities within and outside Nigeria where they are much more likely to have access to ‘clean’ water supply. Yes they can afford to buy ‘bottled water’ or ‘pure’ water sachets when they visit Nigeria. NAFDAC regulates the production and distribution of those. We are still not 100% sure of the source of those ‘purified’ water. The fruits and vegetable and other produce we consume are still being prepared using whatever source of domestic water supply that is available to your relatives or hosts or indeed the road side food vendor whose delicacy many cherish.
We are still exposed to the same substandard private and public hospitals which we have to subject ourselves to when we have no other choice or when we are too ill to decide for ourselves.
We are all still mere mortals!
Thank you
Dr Joseph Chukwu
MRCPI, DCH, Dip(HSM), MBBS
Paediatric Registrar
Dublin, Ireland.
0035386 3688549
joe.chukwu@gmail.com
Hi
You have written a great piece of work there!
I think the problem stems from the lack of basic necessity of life such clean water. The current and past leaders failed to maintain or improve on the pipe-borne water network established in the major Nigerian cities by the colonialists such that the inhabitants of these cities now depend on water from questionable sources for drinking and other domestic purposes.
I can remember our time in the medical school at one of the premier universities in Eastern Nigeria when we had to resort to collecting water from streams and drainage channels for our domestic use simply because the taps have dried up for months on end and the school authorities could not keep up with supplying water to the large number of students using the water tankers whose source of supply is still questionable. Is that not enough recipe for cholera and other water-borne diseases outbreak and death on a massive scale?
If the water supply in the cities cannot be maintained you can imagine what happens in smaller villages where there are no such infrastructures in place.
Electricity and water are interconnected such that sometimes without one the other cannot function. So sorting out the power problem would help in solving the water supply crises.
I disagree with you that readers of your blog are immune from water-borne diseases unless reading your blog confers some immunity to the reader. We should then recommend or force it on all Nigerians. Yes the class of people reading your blog probably live in cities within and outside Nigeria where they are much more likely to have access to ‘clean’ water supply. Yes they can afford to buy ‘bottled water’ or ‘pure’ water sachets when they visit Nigeria. NAFDAC regulates the production and distribution of those. We are still not 100% sure of the source of those ‘purified’ water. The fruits and vegetable and other produce we consume are still being prepared using whatever source of domestic water supply that is available to your relatives or hosts or indeed the road side food vendor whose delicacy many cherish.
We are still exposed to the same substandard private and public hospitals which we have to subject ourselves to when we have no other choice or when we are too ill to decide for ourselves.
We are all still mere mortals!
Thank you
Dr Joseph Chukwu
MRCPI, DCH, Dip(HSM), MBBS
Paediatric Registrar
Dublin, Ireland.
0035386 3688549
joe.chukwu@gmail.com
Hi
You have written a great piece of work there!
I think the problem stems from the lack of basic necessity of life such clean water. The current and past leaders failed to maintain or improve on the pipe-borne water network established in the major Nigerian cities by the colonialists such that the inhabitants of these cities now depend on water from questionable sources for drinking and other domestic purposes.
I can remember our time in the medical school at one of the premier universities in Eastern Nigeria when we had to resort to collecting water from streams and drainage channels for our domestic use simply because the taps have dried up for months on end and the school authorities could not keep up with supplying water to the large number of students using the water tankers whose source of supply is still questionable. Is that not enough recipe for cholera and other water-borne diseases outbreak and death on a massive scale?
If the water supply in the cities cannot be maintained you can imagine what happens in smaller villages where there are no such infrastructures in place.
Electricity and water are interconnected such that sometimes without one the other cannot function. So sorting out the power problem would help in solving the water supply crises.
I disagree with you that readers of your blog are immune from water-borne diseases unless reading your blog confers some immunity to the reader. We should then recommend or force it on all Nigerians. Yes the class of people reading your blog probably live in cities within and outside Nigeria where they are much more likely to have access to ‘clean’ water supply. Yes they can afford to buy ‘bottled water’ or ‘pure’ water sachets when they visit Nigeria. NAFDAC regulates the production and distribution of those. We are still not 100% sure of the source of those ‘purified’ water. The fruits and vegetable and other produce we consume are still being prepared using whatever source of domestic water supply that is available to your relatives or hosts or indeed the road side food vendor whose delicacy many cherish.
We are still exposed to the same substandard private and public hospitals which we have to subject ourselves to when we have no other choice or when we are too ill to decide for ourselves.
We are all still mere mortals!
Thank you
Dr Joseph Chukwu
MRCPI, DCH, Dip(HSM), MBBS
Paediatric Registrar
Dublin, Ireland.
0035386 3688549
joe.chukwu@gmail.com
Hi
You have written a great piece of work there!
I think the problem stems from the lack of basic necessity of life such clean water. The current and past leaders failed to maintain or improve on the pipe-borne water network established in the major Nigerian cities by the colonialists such that the inhabitants of these cities now depend on water from questionable sources for drinking and other domestic purposes.
I can remember our time in the medical school at one of the premier universities in Eastern Nigeria when we had to resort to collecting water from streams and drainage channels for our domestic use simply because the taps have dried up for months on end and the school authorities could not keep up with supplying water to the large number of students using the water tankers whose source of supply is still questionable. Is that not enough recipe for cholera and other water-borne diseases outbreak and death on a massive scale?
If the water supply in the cities cannot be maintained you can imagine what happens in smaller villages where there are no such infrastructures in place.
Electricity and water are interconnected such that sometimes without one the other cannot function. So sorting out the power problem would help in solving the water supply crises.
I disagree with you that readers of your blog are immune from water-borne diseases unless reading your blog confers some immunity to the reader. We should then recommend or force it on all Nigerians. Yes the class of people reading your blog probably live in cities within and outside Nigeria where they are much more likely to have access to ‘clean’ water supply. Yes they can afford to buy ‘bottled water’ or ‘pure’ water sachets when they visit Nigeria. NAFDAC regulates the production and distribution of those. We are still not 100% sure of the source of those ‘purified’ water. The fruits and vegetable and other produce we consume are still being prepared using whatever source of domestic water supply that is available to your relatives or hosts or indeed the road side food vendor whose delicacy many cherish.
We are still exposed to the same substandard private and public hospitals which we have to subject ourselves to when we have no other choice or when we are too ill to decide for ourselves.
We are all still mere mortals!
Thank you
Dr Joseph Chukwu
MRCPI, DCH, Dip(HSM), MBBS
Paediatric Registrar
Dublin, Ireland.
0035386 3688549
joe.chukwu@gmail.com
It is truly shocking that people are dying from cholera in Nigeria in 2010. Nigerian leaders should hang their heads in shame.
very sad that other African countries marching forward but Nigeria;God help that country.
It was measles last month and now cholera! Which is the next easily preventable infectious disease lurking round the corner? Whilst all this is going on we here reports of the strike action by the NARD paralysing hospital services coupled with the NMA not taking the lead in shaping healthcare delivery.
I do not think responsibilty for the mess lies only with the political class. The professional class also has lost the plot. In fact genuine followership is nonexistent across the land.
Keep writing guys and let’s hope that in no distant time the Nigerian elite will hear and come awake from their collective numbing slumber.
Ken Nwosu
Hi guys, You sure its just 400 deaths?
This country makes me furious. The maternal and child mortality rates are also shameful.
My mom is an edidiemolgist too and she was visibly upset when she heard the numbers. She worked for years on the guinea worm programm in 80s 90s and knows first hand how hard it is to get Govt to put down something as basic as water to stop ancient and nearly extinct diseases from plagueing us.
People only care about themselves in this country.But you would expect that in a ‘jungle’.It is survival of the fittest.We have all become so thick-skinned.In a country where it’s government is a captured agency,existing only to share money and award contracts in favour of it’s clients,People have learned to look out for number one.What a shame.
Please check out my blog://henryik2009.wordpress.com.
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