Story Written By Khadijat Aliyu Edited by Godwin Duru
The public has been advised to use strategies such as hand washing , social distancing and use of face masks to mitigate the prevalent rate of COVID-19 and other related diseases in Nigeria.
Academic staff of Bayero University Kano (BUK), and a representative of the preventive education research team Kano Dr. Babangida Ladan made the call during a dissemination seminar themed on preventive education strategies as a vaccine to COVID-19 prevalence and related diseases.
According to him, the research was conducted in three states with the highest prevalent cases of COVID-19 which are Oyo, Kano and Rivers while in Kano, Nasarawa, KMC and Gwale local government areas were selected.
Dr. Babangida noted that the message preference differs in the three states, saying that in Kano , Radio, TV and Social media were identified as the most effective ways to disseminate key strategies to the public.
The representative commended Tetfund, Kano state Ministries of Education and Higher Education, Management of tertiary institutions and the media for their tireless efforts in making the research a reality.
“We interacted with people on how to prevent themselves from the effects of COVID-19, as the lockdown in 2020 came with a lot of challenges including educational, economic, social and mental health implications, among others”.
“We don’t want the reoccurrence of lockdown anymore we want the government and people to use preventive education strategies”.
The co-researcher Dr Auwal Halilu from the Department of Adult Education and Community Development at Bayero University Kano, hinted that the majority of people are ignorant of epidemics and diseases, saying that, awareness is critical to curtailing pandemics.
He pointed out that, COVID-19 came as a shock to many due to a lack of adequate information as many respondents believe that the disease is still there while others are of the view that it has been eradicated.
“We are not supposed to sleep but rather take measures against diseases like COVID-19 among others”.
Dr Auwal stressed that the research recommended that programs should be designed to support individuals constantly worried about their families contracting covid 19 and other diseases, strengthen sensitization programs across schools, and facilitate local and global communication channels among others.
Radio Nigeria reports that the research was supported by the tertiary education trust Tetfund National Research Fund.
KHADIJAH ALIYU
