The Oyo State Government through the Oyo State Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, (OYORUSASSA) with support from WaterAid Nigeria and HAF commemorated this year’s Global Handwashing Day with the theme: “Unite for Universal Hand Hygiene”.
This year’s theme is focused on “promoting national hand hygiene efforts, including the development of a costed hand hygiene roadmap”, increase awareness on hand hygiene financing by investing in programs that are hygiene sensitive and lead to lasting hand hygiene habits and support affordable, accessible, and desirable hand hygiene solutions for everyone, everywhere.
This year’s Hand Washing day was marked in Babarere health care center, Olorunsogo LGA, Ibadan.
Speaking at the event, the Community Mobilization Officer, who represented the GM Oyo RUWASSA, Mr. Adegoke Ayodele said this year’s event was aimed at deepening Oyo State government’s efforts in combating the spread of infectious diseases through the practice of key hygiene behaviors such as Hand Washing with soap and running water through the Local government healthcare officers.
He further highlighted that with the Launch of the Nigeria Hand Hygiene for all (HH4A) roadmap, there is need to galvanize efforts in creating awareness most especially at the community levels in Oyo state.
The event also had a lecture on “Fecal-oral route of transmission of diseases”, this was explained by Aishat Aminu, representative from OYRUWASSA.
In her lecture, she highlighted the 5Fs of Fecal oral transmissions which are Feces, Fingers, Flies, Fields, Fluids, these she said are the key ways humans get sick as a result of contamination, thus the need to practice good hand hygiene amongst other hygiene behaviors must be upheld.
She highlighted the transmission flow, and how proper hand washing needs to be upheld. She also pointed out how as healthcare workers, not only do they expose their patients to transmission, but also themselves are affected.
She called for healthcare workers to pro-active in practicing proper hand hygiene at the critical times when carrying out their duties of which include before and after treating a sick patient, before and after eating, before caring for a new born, etc. she highlighted so many avenues transmission can occur.
The 5 domains of Hygiene by Prince Adetuwo from OYRUWASSA domains are the areas or field covered by hygiene. According to WHO hygiene is defined as practices and conditions that ensure health is maintained and prevent spread of diseases, Effective handwashing eliminates more than a hundred diseases. He also charged the healthcare workers drawn from various health care facilities at the event to step down the training they have received to their coworkers as well as practice and demonstrate these handwashing techniques during critical days like pre-natal and immunization days.
In her vote of thanks, the representative of Living Word Mission, Mrs. Bukola Adeniji appreciated WaterAid Nigeria and Heineken Africa Foundation’s continual support in uniting with Oyo state government and CSOs to improving WASH services and hygiene promotion in the state.
She further said that the added goal of this year’s GHWD celebration was to ensure the number of people visiting health care centers for cases related with communicable diseases reduces just by practicing these simple hand washing.
She also appreciated the Chairman Oyo RUWASSA for his Leadership and the agency for their pro-activeness in prioritizing the health and wellness of the good people of Oyo state.
Finally, she called upon the state government and MDAs to prioritize WASH access at the community level most especially in health care facilities and to ensure considerations for persons with disabilities, she urged the government to consider the marginalized and vulnerable groups in the society as they are the ones most affected when WASH facilities and services are broken down.
