Bamidele Eleniola
The Federal University Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria (FUOYE), has alerted students and the members of staff on contagious airborne of the ear, nose, and throat and the need to take precautionary measure especially in the next 21days.
The Directorate of the University Health Services, however sensitized members of the university community on the infection control.
Its Medical Director, Dr. Musibaiu Olawale, in a memo entitled “Acute Upper Respiratory Tract Infections (AURTI) said AURTI, being a contagious airborne of the ear, nose and throat, may be for less than 3 weeks (21days) duration.
The memo reads:
“The commonest symptoms of these infections include sneezing, running nose, or blocked nose, cough, headache, low-grade fever, sore throat, malaise, loss of appetite, earache, etc
“According to the statistics at the University Health Services, AURTI has been found to amount to more than 50% of the presentations at the clinic by both staff and students of the university community.
“They have been observed to cause significant loss of man-hours by both staff and students on account of time spent waiting at the clinic for care and the convalescence period, the high incidence of AURTI has been noted to cause the rapid depletion of the clinic resources”
Specifically, Dr. Olawale in the memo further explained the risk factors for AURTI which he said included Climate conditions, overcrowding, and air pollution, saying that Climate conditions propelled AURTI following current excessive heat being experienced in the country.
He said: “The Nigerian Metrological Agency ( NiMET) has also said that this will persist for some time to come as the agency has also predicted that air temperature will hit 41•c over the North and 39•c over the south and the weather condition will result in heart relief illness such as AURTI.”
The medical expert therefore urged members of staff and students to take preventable measures to curb this infection from the university community.
“To forestall these preventable health conditions, the University Health Services is recommending the following preventive strategies to reduce the incidence of the infection and other great related illnesses among staff and students of the University Community and the general public,” he added.
He, however, enjoined staff and students to use face-masks in public especially during ill-health, practice regular hand hygiene with soap and eating, strengthen their immune systems by eating fruits and vegetables, drinking four bottles of water or six sachets of pure water per day at room temperature, “staying away from unnecessary large gathering; reduce exposure to the sun by keeping shades, use fans and wear light and colored clothing and stay indoors for as long as possible, especially in the afternoon.”
