A public health expert, Prof. Olalubi Oluwashogo, has warned on the dangers of patronising sachet waters not fully certified by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
He gave the warning during a town hall meeting organised by Fridabs Solacebase communication in partnership with Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.
The event with the theme ‘Integrating Community Inclusion to Combat Cholera Outbreak Using PHCs’, was supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
He also urged the people to avoid restaurants/food vendors mixing and serving leftover foods to customers.
‘Any sachet water with ‘L’ at the end of its NAFDAC registration number means listed for inspection, not yet certified for consumption which can take up to five months.’
‘Yet you see many such products on the street. But how many people have such awareness or knowledge to interrogate? NAFDAC should do the needful to sensitise the people to curb any potential health challenge that may worsen this issue of cholera’, he noted
Olalubi, also the Deputy Director, Centre for Research and Development, Kwara State University, said rural settlers must have access to proper information with respect to the mode of transmission, symptoms, treatment, control and prevention of cholera.
Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Dr Aminat El-Imam, who was represented by Dr Ajao Shuaib of the Department of Public Health, said the programme was timely and apt in line with the cholera situation in the country.
El-Imam said while Kwara State has not recorded any case of cholera outbreak and has alerted PHCs, it will shut down any restaurant/food vendor with any deficit.
‘We are going round now. If you observe any lapses/deficit in any restaurant, escalate it and we will shut the place down’, he added.
In his remarks, the facilitator of the programme, Abdullateef Abubakar Jos, implored the state government to prioritise the WASH programme to eradicate open defecation and prevent outbreak and spread of cholera among other diseases.
