The District Head of Toro in Bauchi State, Alhaji Umaru Adamu, has attributed the recurring outbreak of cholera and malaria to disregard for personal and environmental hygiene by the people.
The monarch stated this in Toro during activities marking world breastfeeding week organised by a Bauchi-based NGO, African Community and Environmental Health Initiative ACE-HI.
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The traditional ruler explained that containing the diseases may remain a mirage unless households imbibe the culture of keeping their surroundings clean and practice good personal hygiene.
Alhaji Umaru , who is also the Katukan Toro, noted that since the two diseases thrive where people engage in open defecation, indiscriminate dumping of refuse, their spread would remain inevitable.
He appealed to nursing mothers to “Observe basic hygiene habits such as boiling water and storing it in properly sealed containers, washing hands after visiting the toilet and before breastfeeding children as well as to ensure that they sleep under mosquito-treated nets.
In his remark, the Executive Director of ACE-HI, Mr John Abu said the project, funded by USAID and being implemented by ProHealth International and Catholic Relief Services, has impacted positively in the lives of the benefitting communities in Toro and Ningi LGAs of Bauchi State as men now realise the importance breastfeeding and encourage their wives to embrace exclusive breastfeeding.