Expert Cautions On The Rains

A specialist in Family
Medicine has cautioned on healthy living now that the rains are here.
A Port Harcourt-based private medical practitioner, Dr. Okechukwu  Chukwuka,  stated that the rainy season is a time when contagious diseases abound.
Commonest among these diseases, according to Chukwuka include Dengue fever, cold, viral infection, respiratory disease and Cholera/Diarrhea.
He stated that taking precautions against these diseases would help in keeping one’s family healthy during the rainy season.
According to him, clearing of drainages, proper waste disposal and clearing all potential breeding places for mosquitoes would help prevent Dengue fever, and cautioned that Dengue-carrying mosquitoes breed in dark and damp areas.
Dr. Chukwuka further said that during the rainy season, flooding is inevitable in some parts of the country especially the coastal areas, adding that this brings with it diseases such as leptospirosis, a viral infection which he said is caused, when the virus enters the body through the skin or mucous membranes of a person who waded through floodwater contaminated by animal urine and Typhoid Fever, a bacterial disease caused by the ingestion of food or drink contaminated by faces or urine of infected persons.
Furthermore, he said, cholera (Diarrhea), in which water sources are contaminated is another disease that is caused by flooding, adding that respiratory illnesses also abound during the rainy season.
The Family Medicine Specialist expressed delight that these diseases fortunately are preventable, saying, simple hand washing with running water and soap regularly, bathing with warm water if caught in the rain, drinking a lot of water even when not thirsty to remove harmful toxins from the body and drinking hot beverages would help keep the diseases at  all time low.
He advised, “prevention is better than cure, stop the disease before it stops you by safeguarding your health and that of your family, especially during the rainy season.”

Tonye Nria-Dappa