Lara Adejoro A Professor of Public Health at the University of Ilorin and Consultant Public Health Physician at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Kwara State, Prof Kayode Osagbemi discusses strategies for reducing cholera incidence with this interview with LARA ADEJORO Can you tell us more about cholera and what are the trends in its outbreaks in Nigeria over the past decade? Cholera is a bacterial infection that affects the gastrointestinal or digestive system. It is a disease caused by one of the microbes called the Vibrio cholerae but to the general public it is a bacterial infection. It is common all over the world but in places like the developed world, they don’t have cholera because it’s a disease related to poor environmental sanitation and inadequate water supply.
It is more prevalent in the developing parts of the world, areas with high-density populations, and poor water supply, mainly Africa, India, and some other parts of the world that have population density with poor environmental sanitation. I don’t think we have had any major outbreak in Nigeria in the last decade but there have been pockets of the infection. How does cholera spread and what factors contribute to its transmission? Cholera spreads from person to person mainly through contaminated food and water.
If somebody has cholera and he’s stooling or vomiting, then the product – either the vomitus or the stool gets in contact with the water and food, and somebody else ingests the con.