By Amos Tauna
Kaduna (Nigeria) – About 4.5 billion people in the world live without household toilets that safely dispose of their waste, according to United Nations report.
It also estimates that about a billion people still defecate outdoors, making men and women suffering from various dangerous toilet infection due to negligence, especially the rural dwellers.
Speaking at the World Toilet Day, Director, School of Health Science, Kaduna, northern Nigeria, Maryam Abubakar, said there was a wrong perception that “Toilet infection’ only refers to a feminine disease, stressing that men can easily acquire the infection, by simply having sex with an infected woman.
She explained that increasing threat of dangerous toilet infection and diseases among women and men world wide, is becoming worrisome due to negligence and “I don’t care attitude” and the continuous use of open defecation by some rural dwellers.
According to her, toilet infections referred to as toilet disease causes female to experience discomfort such as burning, itching and unpleasant or foul odour coming right from the vagina.
Maryam added that Africans and particularly Nigerians deserve a decent toilet. “Today in Nigerian, public toilets are eye sore, dirty and places where infections are distributed, specifically to our women. Female members of the public need privacy for toileting and would be willing to use any kind of toilet when they are pressed,” she explained.
She added that the United Nations report indicate that toilets save lives, pointing out that human waste spreads killer diseases and stressed the need for steps to be taken to tackle the global sanitation crisis.
She regretted that public toilets are still being used. “Open defaecation is still being practiced in the public domain. Governments are enforcing laws to discourage this practice. Public enlightenment campaign should be encouraged on the use of public toileting, because no religion or tradition gives room to open toileting,” she observed.
Maryam noted that regardless of how it is being viewed, toilet infections could be uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing as the itching tends to occur when you are out in public places.
She explained that the common symptoms of the various kinds of toilet infection are; itching, Vaginal discharge, and burning. “Irrespective of how similar these symptoms look like, you should be able to point out the difference by examining the colour and the smell of the vaginal discharge.”
She added that some amount of vaginal discharge occurs normally in women of child bearing age, noting that the glands in the cervix produce secretion that moves downwards mixing with bacteria and dead vaginal cells which may make the discharge whitish or yellowish in colour when exposed to air.
Toilet Day is celebrated worldwide on 19th of November every year. The theme of this year is, ”Focussing on Waste Water.”
