194, 000 Nigerian Children Die Of Diarrhoea Annually.

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has said about 194, 000 children under five die annually as a result of diarrhoea in Nigeria.

This was contained in a message issued by UNICEF to mark this year’s Global Hand washing Day saying “hand washing is not complicated, but crucial.”

The organisation said a simple act of hand washing with soap can save hundreds of thousands of children who needlessly die every year.

The message reads in part: “As diarrhoea diseases are basically faecal-oral in nature, one of the simplest and most inexpensive barriers to infection is hand washing with soap or ash at critical times, such as before handling food and after defecation or changing a diaper. Hygiene promotion and proper hand washing is also the most cost effective public health intervention against diarrhoea diseases.”

Ibrahima Fall, Representative of UNICEF in Nigeria said, “Hand washing with soap has become all the more necessary in view of the ongoing floods in a number of states contaminating water supplies.”