Only 37 per cent of Nigeria’s family inhabitants has entry to primary handwashing services with cleaning soap and water, elevating considerations over the unfold of preventable infections, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) has mentioned.
Speaking in Lagos, the muse’s Director of Programming and Reporting, Dr Osinachi Onyeoziri, disclosed this throughout the commemoration of the 2026 Global Handwashing Day on October 15, saying improved hand hygiene remained one of many easiest and most cost-effective methods of stopping infections and defending public well being.
While citing the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, Onyeoziri mentioned the figures highlighted the necessity for sustained hygiene schooling and improved entry to water, sanitation and hygiene services, significantly in colleges and communities.
He mentioned, “Washing our hands with soap and clean water is not just a personal habit but one of the most practical and cost-effective public health practices that help prevent the spread of infections, protect our families and communities, and contribute to healthier schools.”
The occasion, held beneath the theme: “Be a Handwashing Hero,” introduced collectively college students, lecturers, authorities representatives and growth companions to advertise correct handwashing practices and encourage youngsters to change into hygiene ambassadors of their colleges and houses.
According to Onyeoziri, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 1.4 million deaths may have been prevented by enough water, sanitation and hygiene providers in 2019, whereas unsafe hand hygiene was linked to 356,000 deaths from acute respiratory infections throughout the identical interval.
He added that handwashing may cut back diarrhoea-related sicknesses and respiratory infections, whereas serving to to scale back college absenteeism related to preventable illnesses.
The WBFA director mentioned the muse, in partnership with Reckitt, had been implementing the Dettol Hygiene Quest programme to advertise hygiene schooling amongst schoolchildren, pregnant ladies, new moms and group members.
He additional disclosed that the programme reached 443,595 individuals throughout Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and different collaborating areas throughout its first two implementation phases between 2022 and 2025.
According to him, the beneficiaries included 282,108 college students, 137 pregnant ladies and new moms, and 48,110 group members.
He added that the programme established 1,134 pupil hygiene ambassadors throughout 567 colleges, enabling pupils to encourage their friends to undertake correct hygiene practices.
Onyeoziri added that about 5,000 healthcare employees had additionally been skilled in an infection prevention and management by the muse’s SafeClean programme.
He mentioned assessments carried out beneath the intervention indicated reductions in communicable disease-related sicknesses of 34 per cent in Abuja, 32 per cent within the Federal Capital Territory and 16 per cent in Lagos, though the precise areas and methodology of the evaluation weren’t detailed in her remarks.
The basis, she added, was concentrating on 750,000 college students in 750 colleges, alongside 90,000 pregnant ladies and new moms throughout 78 healthcare services in Lagos, Kano and different collaborating states by the top of 2026.
Also talking, Reckitt’s consultant, Ayomide Bello, mentioned sustained funding in hygiene schooling was essential to translate public well being messages into lasting behavioural modifications.
Bello mentioned the Dettol Hygiene Quest programme had recorded enhancements in hygiene information amongst collaborating college students, with features of as much as 32 per cent reported within the earlier 12 months.
She added that the initiative had reached about 1.2 million schoolchildren and pregnant ladies over the previous three years, as the corporate labored in direction of its goal of impacting six million individuals by 2030.
“No child should miss school due to an illness that proper handwashing can prevent,” Bello mentioned, urging college students to share the hygiene classes with their households and communities.
During a sensible demonstration on the occasion, WBFA’s Aligbe Florence taught college students to scrub their fingers with cleaning soap and clear water for not less than 20 seconds, taking note of areas which might be usually missed, together with between the fingers and across the nails.
The facilitators additionally urged pupils to scrub their fingers earlier than consuming or dealing with meals, after utilizing the bathroom and each time their fingers grew to become visibly soiled.
They defined that fingers may switch disease-causing microorganisms from contaminated surfaces to the eyes, nostril, mouth and meals, stressing that water alone was not as efficient as washing with cleaning soap and water.
Consequently, the muse known as on authorities authorities, college directors, lecturers and fogeys to assist entry to practical handwashing services and make hygiene schooling a routine a part of youngsters’s studying and each day lives.
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