Two days ago, I was driving my daughters to school
when they spotted a lady on a motorbike. She was smartly dressed in a white
shirt on a beige colored skirt. Her shirt had epaulets on them signifying she
was a ranked member of a uniformed organization. Ruby, the older of my two
daughters asked “Daddy, which
organization does this lady work for?”
Tara replied “she is a special mobile
police woman”.
I couldn't help laughing as I told them that she was
a Sanitary Officer/Inspector. Nowadays, they are also referred to as Environmental
Health Officers (EHOs). I went further to explain the functions of EHOs to
include monitoring and inspection of restaurants, eateries and other
establishments to ensure that they adhere to the prescribed standards of public
hygiene. My daughters were surprised that such an organization existed because
in their combined 17 years on earth, they had never seen anyone performing such
functions.
The next question from Ruby was: “why don’t these people inspect our school
canteen? It is always so filthy and has flies all over the place.” “I guess that is why children who eat there
are always going to the toilet.” Tara contributed.
How true! We do have EHOs but they don’t really do
much to earn their pay. When they do inspect and monitor public establishments,
many of the EHOs end up collecting money from offenders without actually
penalizing such offenders. This is a danger to our collective health because an
epidemic can break out from such unhygienic facilities.
That incidence reminded me of another public health
disaster noticed in our neighborhood about a year ago. We woke up one morning
to find that a newly constructed house had a drainage pipe which was emptying
waste water directly into the street! The water consisted of bath water and
kitchen waste. Guess who owned the house: a (dis)honorable member of the State
House of Assembly. The health hazard posed by this impudence was immeasurable. Several hundreds of school children and others walked across
that puddle of water daily. Imagine if a child had fallen right into that
watery bacterial mess. For those of us who drove past it daily, it was quite an
eyesore. Several months and multiple visits later, the legislator finally
constructed a proper drainage system to handle the waste water.
The above scenario plays out in so many cities
across Africa and the developing world every day. Little wonder that we still
have people dying from cholera and other diarrheal diseases.
After dropping Ruby and Tara in school, I decided to
see my Auto Mechanic to fix a minor fault in my car. At the workshop, I saw a
well dressed and apparently enlightened middle-aged man having a pedicure. I wasn't fascinated that he was having his toenails trimmed and cleaned in such a
public place. Rather, I was shocked at the manicurist/pedicurist who was doing
the job. The chap was barely literate and knew nothing about infection control nor
the proper use of sharp objects. He had a rusty scissors that was razor sharp
and a few other sharp things. (These traditional manicurists/pedicurists are
ubiquitous in Northern Nigeria). I tried unsuccessfully to educate both the
manicurist and the ‘manicuree’ on the dangers of using sharp unsterilized
instruments. When I wasn't making any headway and it looked obvious that I was a busy body, I shut my trap, did my business and left the scene.
As I drove to the office that day, I realized that
we still had a long way to go to ensure public health and safety. While the
developed countries have progressed to producing cutting-edge medical
technologies, the developing world is still struggling with basic public health
issues like personal hygiene, clean school canteens and unregulated
practitioners.
Though the future may appear bleak, healthcare
professionals should not despair. We must continue to partner with both the
government and the public. Our role remains to educate the public in our
consulting rooms, at the market, in our homes, neighborhood and yes, even in
the auto mechanic workshops. We must also hold the government accountable to ensure
that relevant agencies inspect and monitor public facilities, enforce the laws,
eliminate (?) corruption, punish offenders and reward exceptional compliers.
The journey to a safer public health seems far, but
each determined step taken will lead us closer to our destination.
See you soon….
No comments:
Post a Comment