UNICEF on Wednesday urged states in Nigeria to urgently provide their counterpart funding to access Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) in an effort to save about nine million children from malnutrition.

“Without urgent action in 2024, UNICEF estimates that approximately nine million children under five years will suffer from moderate and acute malnutrition,” Mr Prosper Dakurah, Nutrition Manager at UNICEF, said in Lagos.

Dakurah spoke at a meeting of UNICEF, Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME) and some media professionals.

The meeting was in connection with a partnership between UNICEF, DAME and Nigerian Guild of Editors on the protection of the rights of the Nigerian child.

Reports state that the CNF is a new financing mechanism designed to accelerate the scale-up of sustainable policies, programmes and supplies to end child wasting.

It is designed to support government-led efforts in some of the countries that have the highest proportion of children under five years of age with wasting.

Dakurah said that states such as Katsina, Jigawa and Plateau had made their funding, adding that Adamawa, Ebonyi and Gombe had made commitments toward it.

He called on states yet to pay or sign a memorandum of understanding in that regard to hasten the payment in the interest of the Nigerian child.

Dakurah said that UNICEF would match any state’s counterpart fund by the CNF.

“You pay one dollar, you get an additional dollar from CNF,” he said.

According to the manager, UNICEF is committed to reaching millions of children in Nigeria with its interventions.

He said that every dollar spent on nutrition would generate 16 dollars in economic returns.

Dakurah added that it would take N10, 860 or 15 dollars to prevent a child from being malnourished but would cost N99, 636 or 140 dollars to treat a malnourished child.

According to the official, if left untreated, children with severe acute malnutrition are nearly 12 times more likely to die than a healthy child.

Mrs Dorothy Ochola-Odongo, Health Manager at UNICEF, regretted that Nigeria started reporting cases of another variant of Polio virus after it was certified polio-free in August 2020.

According to her, the variant, vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV), is a rare phenomenon that occurs when the weakened poliovirus in oral poliovirus vaccines mutates and regains its ability to cause disease.

“It is important to note that cVDPV is not caused by the vaccine itself, but by the mutation of the virus in the environment.

“To prevent cVDPV, it is crucial to maintain high vaccination coverage and ensure that everyone, especially in areas with low vaccination rates, receives a full course of polio vaccines.

The health manager said that UNICEF was committed to supporting the Nigerian Government to eradicate the variant soon.

In his remarks, the President of the NGE, Mr Eze Anaba, expressed the hope that the partnership would go a long way to ensure more protection of the rights of Nigerian children.

Mr Lanre Idowu, Chief Executive Officer and Editor- in-Chief at Diamond Publications Ltd. and Trustee of DAME, emphasised the need for journalists, UNICEF and governments to ensure best practices in their respective areas of influence.

By Dennis Udoma, Uyo

Experts on drug and alcohol studies have identified media as agent of social change in the fight against substance usage and abuse in Nigeria.

Health Sociologist at the Center for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA), Mr. Ediomo – Ubong Nelson disclosed this at a One Day Media Round – Table with journalists in Uyo to mark this year’s World Drug Day titled, “Evidence is Clear: Invest in Prevention.”

He said, there cannot be meaningful progress in the effort to stop drug or substance usage by individuals without the media at the forefront.

The resource persons, who presented papers on drug and alcohol use, implications on health, society and the economy, took a swipe at the drug situation in Nigeria, Africa and the world in general and charged the media to appropriately use appreciative language in reporting persons with substance usage to avoid being perceived negatively.

He further stated that the media should ethically and responsively communicate drug related issues so as not to perpetuate the problem.

According to them, “The media is a critical change agent in changing the current narrative on stigmatising persons with drug use; being the foundation on which the drug use challenges can be communicated positively or negatively.

“Language can marginalise, stigmatise, alienate, exclude or include. It shapes perception, attitude and could have real life impact on social interactions; conveys stereotypes and biases which can make people feel unsafe, unwanted, unwelcome and rejected among other things.”

Participants at the discourse however, agreed that language misuse should be seen as a public health matter, while the society should be sensitised against exclusion.

They also advocated that there should be home-grown solutions to stem the tide of drug misuse, upgrading of available statistics to meet current realities on ground.

Others are that governments should target the early teens to avoid early addiction through public enlightenment and school programmes, establishment of rehabilitation centres to enhance rehabilitation of people with substance abuse and investment on prevention programmes targeting young people with trained professionals etc.

Former Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMPA) General Physician, Dr Tunji Akintade, has called for a ban on the sale of ‘nylon water’ to reduce the transmission of cholera disease in the country.

Dr Tunji made this known during an interview with journalists in Lagos.

He called to the Federal Government to take drastic measures at restricting it so that the sale of nylon water be reduced to further curbed the transmission and deaths arising from cholera outbreaks nationwide

The physician sounded a note of warning to the general public against consuming nylon water, pointing out that the source and purification of such water can not be ascertained because they are not properly registered.

He disclosed that past tests had confirmed the contamination of some boreholes and well water by pathogens, emphasising that nylon water was unsafe for consumption

“People can get cholera by drinking unsafe water or eating food contaminated with cholera bacteria.

“It’s so sad that people neglect their health because of financial concerns and some unscrupulous traders are cashing on it,” he said.

Akintade appealed to the government to intensify surveillance across communities and attach punitive measures for traders of nylon water toward safeguarding the health of citizens.

The physician also called for effective monitoring and regulations of pure water and bottled water factories to ensure they adhere to safety standards in their production.

He lamented the perennial cholera outbreak in the country, noting that cholera had ceased to be a public health concern in industrialised countries that deployed modern sewage and water treatment.

He urged the Federal and state governments to move beyond alerting the public about the unsafe conditions of the water source to expediting actions to improve access to clean and safe water through functional water boards.

The physician stressed that doing that would mitigate the health risks associated with the consumption of unsafe water, especially as rain and flooding are causing waterborne diseases in communities.

He added that ingesting contaminated food could also cause cholera, advising the public to ensure vegetables and fruits are properly washed before eating and food produced in a hygienic environment.

Akintade stressed the equipping of environmental inspection officers with improved training and equipment required to effectively monitor and clean the environment.

“The issue of revenue generation through them should be downplayed for them to achieve their core mandates, focusing on ways to generate money has trivialised their role.”

Cholera is an acute diarrhoea infection caused by eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on June 24 disclosed that 53 deaths and 1,528 suspected cholera cases were recorded across 31 states, since the beginning of 2024.

Lagos State is the epicentre of the cholera outbreak with 29 fatalities, 579 suspected cases and 43 laboratory-confirmed cases across multiple Local Government Areas in the state.

Reports  has it that  some traders within Lagos State and it’s environ have increased the price of “pure water” also known as “sachet water” just to survive  the hardship in the country

A Sachet of water is  now being sold at N50 in most parts of Lagos, while nylon water is sold for N10 or N20, depending on the location.