A Senior Programme Officer with Child and Family Health, Mr. David Akpotor, has raised the alarm on abuse of metronidazole, an antibiotic, he says many Nigerians use to treat diarrhoea.
Akpotor stated this at a media dialogue on “Initiating Media Dialogue on Accountability and Honouring Pledges” organised by the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health in Lagos.
He noted that though the World Health Organisation recommends the use of Zinc tablet Oral Rehydration Salt for the treatment of diarrhoea, many Nigerians resort to self-medication by using metronidazole given to them by chemist operators.
Metronidazole belongs to the class of medicines known as antibiotics. It works by killing bacteria or preventing their growth.
According to him, the implementation will drastically reduce the high figures of children dying from the diseases.
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Akpotor said, “ In 2010, the WHO recommended that henceforth Zinc ORS should be used in the treatment of diarrhoea while Amoxillin dispersible tablets should be used to treat pneumonia instead of clotrimadazole. Our former President, Goodluck Jonathan, signed the agreement and chaired the meeting but the country has yet to adopt the guidelines “We want Nigeria to implement it and procure the drugs for its hospitals. Importantly, we want Nigerians to accept it. If they give you Zinc ORS to treat diarrhoea, please use it. Do not buy antibiotics because it encourages drug resistance. It means when you actually need it to treat infections, it will not work.”
The Project Director, Civil Society Scale-Up Nutrition in Nigeria, Mrs. Ngozi Onuora, urged the government to invest in nutrition well.
According to Onuora, malnutrition has placed the country in a negative position in the global world.
She added, “It is the nutritional indices that have placed us as a third world country. We need more funds to ensure that nutrition is given priority. A child that is malnourished, when the child receives immunisation, for instance, measles vaccine, the child will suffer from measles attack.
“But for a healthy child, that child will be able to develop its own immune defence and use it to build self-defence, which is what a measles vaccine will do. Therefore, prioritising nutrition as a proper investment issue should be the government’s goal.”
By: Bukola Adebayo
The Punch News
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