Expert Says Slum Lifestlye,Prostitution Are Nigeria's Key Public Health Challenges

A professor of Community Medicine, Prof. Chris Obionu, said that slum lifestyle, streets hawking and prostitution were the key public health challenges in Nigeria. Obionu of College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, said this in a lecture at the fifth biennial lecture in honour of the late Dr Olujimi Soboyejo in Lagos. NAN reports that Soboyejo contributed to the establishment, development, and the growth of Lagos State, particularly in the areas of health and education. Obionu spoke on:  ``Lifestyle and Health: Peculiar Socioeconomic practises in urban metropolis of Nigeria and their public health implications.’`He said such challenges were associated with rapid urban development and overpopulation. According to him, these lifestyles and their associated health hazards will continue to enlarge with increasing urbanisation, except solutions are found as quickly as possible. ``The health hazards associated with rapid urban development and over population are numerous. ``For streets hawking, they include exposure to road traffic accidents, death, rape, sexual abuse, kidnapping, ritualists and other vices. ``These can lead to suffering from psychological disorders such as depression, post traumatic stress disorder, sleeping difficulties, unwanted pregnancy, dropping out of school, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases. ``The health hazards also affect the public. The food and drinks can be contaminated, leading to food poisoning, waterborne infections, hepatitis , typhoid and other infections.’’The professor of community medicine said that slum lifestyle could give rise to high incidences of poor sanitation, poor housing and standard of living. ``Social ills such as prostitution and alcoholism also record high incidences. ``There are high cases of waterborne diseases like cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery, infectious diseases, skin diseases, HIV/AIDS and other epidemic-prone infections in slum lifestyle.'' Obionu said that prostitution, being a common challenge in urban population growth, could spread fast sexually transmitted infections, pelvic inflammatory diseases, unwanted pregnancy and miscarriages. He called for collaborative efforts to address the challenges associated with urban population growth in the country. ``Measures should be taken to solve the problem of rapid growth of urban population and related health implications. ``Welfare opportunities, jobs, affordable housing and other social services should be provided by the Federal, State and Local Governments. ``Families and parents should also enforce good moral upbringing of their children.’’ Obionu said that Nigeria was experiencing one of the fastest rates of urbanisation in the world. ``There was a recent study by the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI). ``It revealed that over the last few decades, growth rates of the population of Nigeria’s urban cities have almost doubled those of the rural areas. ``It is being projected that by 2015, Nigeria’s urban population will outnumber that of the rural areas. ``In fact, the UN populations estimates that by 2030, Nigeria’s urban population will reach 162 million whereas the rural population will only be about half of the number of urban residents.’’ He, therefore, urged government at all levels to address the problems of rapid growth of urban population to reduce incidences of public health hazards. (NAN)