Despite the risk involved in contracting many life-threatening diseases through spite and sneezing, many people around the world engage in the longtime attitude of indiscriminate spitting in public places, especially in Africa, with Nigeria as a case study.
In today’s world, COVID-19 seems to be one of the deadliest pandemics the world has faced in recent times, for its outbreaks have consumed many lives while crippling the economies of many countries, businesses, and other social activities around the world.
When you talk about COVID-19, many have foregone how tuberculosis calls many to their graves, with hundreds of thousands of people battling both critical and healing conditions.
According to a World Health Organization report, Nigeria recorded 138,591 and 207,785 cases of tuberculosis in 2020 and 2021, respectively. These figures represent a 15% to 50% increase over the previous year’s cases.
With the rising figures of new cases from Nigeria, the world will be puzzled as to why the increasing number of infected people across the country keeps rising. However, this could be linked to indiscriminate spitting and sneezing, which could be one of the reasons why the number keeps rising.
Illegal Disposal And Public Health Concerns
I recall a scenario on a Sunday evening at Junction Road in Kaduna North Local Government Area in Nigeria’s northwestern region. I went to fetch water to perform ablution in a mosque. Upon sitting to perform the ablution, the next thing I noticed was spitting in my eyes that had been illegally disposed of by someone unknown to me.
I nodded my head as I instantly changed my location, but I kept asking myself questions about the consequences of bacteria, tuberculosis, COVID-19, and other life-threatening diseases that can be easily contracted and spread to a larger population from the act of this illegal spitting.
A lack of education and the application of preventative measures, particularly in the field of disease control in Nigeria and the African continent, is among the causes of how easily disease epidemics spread and severely infect hundreds of thousands of people.
Dangers and Speed of Disease Spread
Indiscriminate spitting in public places helps in the spread of disease in categories where findings prove that they carry out a subtle assault on our immune systems and make us defenseless: tuberculosis, COVID-19, and hepatitis C, which cause jaundice and liver damage.
However, Nigeria’s record and figures of infected persons by the World Health Organization (WHO) are scary on the indicator that Nigeria overtakes many other countries despite billions of Naira spent on the country’s budget for health.
As earlier stated in the World Health Organization report, Nigeria recorded 138,591 and 207,785 cases of tuberculosis in 2020 and 2021, respectively. These figures represent a 15% to 50% increase over the previous year’s cases.
Concern and Needed Action
With the rising figures of new cases as reported by WHO, the country’s center for disease control and the National Orientation Commission have a task before them on the need to stop the escalation to a larger population.
Although combating the menace of indiscriminate spitting may be difficult in Nigeria due to the rejection of health risk orientation by both advantaged and disadvantaged families, unless in rare cases, where some practice for good
Nigeria, like other countries, requires a permanent law that prohibits citizens from engaging in the act of indiscriminate spitting or any other activity capable of spreading viruses for the same reason that triggers New York City to pass the first anti-spitting legislation based on public health concerns in 1896.
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