MS Word PDF Plain Text
Call or whatsapp: +2347063298784 or email: update@iprojectworks.com.



A REVIEW OF COVID_19 PROTOCOLS, COMPLIANCE RATE AND HEALTH IMPLICATIONS



ABSTRACT

Compliance with COVID-19 preventive measure is a double edge sword cutting through the fabric of the everyday life of the Nigerian citizen and the university environment to be precise. it is considered that the viral respiratory infections spread by direct contacts, such as touching an infected person or the surfaces that the person has either touched, on which large virus-containing droplets expired by the person lands and there the virus can remain stable for days. The disease is also believed to be spread across a short distance by air.

The clinical manifestation of COVID-19 is a dry cough, fever, and tiredness. Other symptoms which may manifest in patients include headache, aches, pains, nasal congestion, sore throat, conjunctivitis, diarrhea, loss of taste or smell or discoloration of fingers or toes. It is important to note that there is a lot of false knowledge and misconceptions about the disease in Africa and Nigeria.

These misconceptions affect the degree of compliance to the stipulated preventive measures and also exact an indirect effect of the disease on our environmental health. Compliance with the preventive measure while aides in mitigating the spread of the virus also affect other aspects of our environmental health and our ecosystem by extension. Some of the preventive measures are constant washing of hands, use of face mask, social distance, and self-isolation.


CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION

           Compliance withCOVID-19 preventive measure is a double edge sword cutting through the fabric of the everyday life of the Nigerian citizen and the university environment to be precise. It has both negative and positive implications on the cumulative health of the university society. Ranging from mental health-related issues, physiological effects to effects on our ecosystem.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus disease 2019 a pandemic on 12th March 2020. (World Health Organisation, 2020) The disease is caused by a severe type of Coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Olapegba, et al., 2020). The disease originated in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019, by 24th , January 2020, minimum of 830 cases had been diagnosed in nine countries (Unhale, Bilal, Sanap, & Thakhre, 2020).

Generally, it is considered that the viral respiratory infections spread by direct contact, such as touching an infected person or the surfaces that the person has either touched, on which large virus-containing droplets expired by the person lands (Lidia & Junji, 2020), and there the virus can remain stable for days (Doremalen, et al., 2020) or via fomites (particles of skin cells, hair, clothing, and bedding).The droplets can be transferred directly to a person near an infected person. World Health Organization review in 2009 in their report stated that infectious viral diseases can be transmitted over distances compared to indoor environments by aerosols (e.g. airborne infections), and results in clusters of infection in a short period. From the studies on virus transport in general and similarities between the SARS viruses, it is worth noting that the SARS-CoV-2 virus also spreads by air. (Morawska, Johnson, Ristovski, & Hargreaves, 2008).

 

The clinical manifestation of COVID-19 is a dry cough, fever, and tiredness. Other symptoms which may manifest in patients include headache, aches, pains, nasal congestion, sore throat, conjunctivitis, diarrhea, loss of taste or smell or discoloration of fingers or toes. These symptoms manifest mildly and begin gradually. Some persons become infected but only show mild symptoms. (Unhale, et al., 2020) It is also important to note that COVID-19 shares some symptoms with other diseases thus can be miss diagnosed as seen in the supposed Enugu index case who was miss-diagnosed for COVID-19 disease, but further laboratory testing result was negative (Olisah & Chika, 2020).

On 27th, February 2020, Nigeria confirmed its index case in Lagos State, an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria had returned on 25 February from Milan, Italy through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, He fell ill on 26 February and was transferred to Lagos State bio security facilities for isolation and testing (Wikipedia, 2020).

At the onset of the pandemic, preventive measures are taken to protect against imminent danger and control if not stop the disease spread. In line with this, therefore, the Nigerian government (like every other responsible government around the world) introduced various preventive strategies which in tune have interferes with individuals’ daily lives and consequently have led to critical economic loss, threaten the mental wellbeing of the population and social disruption, university’s environmental health inclusive. People were instructed to stay at businesses, home, and offices were closed, exempting workers in essential services sectors like healthcare facilities/workers and essential commercial establishments. In Nigerians where majority of its citizens make a living in the informal economy, their means of livelihood were threatened by the lockdown since much of their activities and businesses involve face-to-face contact. In Nigeria there is no social safety net, no access to food stamps, or unemployment benefits, most people earn their living daily. Regardless of this however, there has so far been a high degree of compliance with the government directives, Nigerians are engaging in vigilant hand washing, practicing social distancing and self-isolation, and avoiding going to work, school or crowded areas. Religious leaders also assisted by the stope of large gatherings, shaking of hands, and instructed her members to pray at home and observe the various preventive measures instructed by the government. (Olapegba, et al., 2020).

To prevent further spread of the virus, civil societies, and government agencies-initiated awareness programs for promotions of several preventive measures. Body temperature screening was conducted at airports and those returning from countries with a high number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 were advised to self-isolate. The Nigeria Center for Disease Control in collaboration with State governments also initiated tracing and tracking of victims and their contacts. On 18th March 2020, the Nigerian government prohibited all gatherings of fifty people or above for four weeks and ordered a stay-at-home (Ewodage, 2020). Similarly, the Nigerian government, on 30th March 2020 introduced various containment plan such as the closing of the national borders and airspace, schools, worship centers, and other public places, canceling of public gathering events, the complete lockdown of the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and Ogun states for fourteen days initially (Radio Nigeria, 2020).

Currently, the federal government while fighting the spread of the virus with massive COVID- 19 screening tests and these preventive measures shows obviously that priority revolves around people''''s health. Consequently, the indirect impact of these preventive measures on environmental health has been little analyzed.

 

 

Some stipulated COVID 19 preventive measures are listed as follows:

1.        Social distance

2.        Self-isolation

3.        Washing of hands with detergent or use of alcohol-based sanitizers

4.        Putting on a face mask in public places

Medical experts and researchers in the world work tirelessly towards the production of COVID-19 vaccines and find more adequate ways to curb the spread of the disease, it is important to note that there is a lot of false knowledge and misconceptions about the disease in Africa and Nigeria. The WHO says the disease has ignited the spread of false news and teaching. This implies that a significant amount of information on social media, some simply false. Specifically, some people in Nigeria doubt the existence of COVID-19; others though admit the existence of the disease but do not believe that it affects the poor or those who cannot or do not travel beyond the national boundaries of the country. Another category believes that some sorts of alcoholic substances and concoction can cure the virus or in the least prevent them from getting infected. A good number of people believe that it is a disease suffered only by the elite class and so it can not affect the poor masses. Others believe that COVID-19 cannot survive in a region around the equator as the temperature would kill it. While others believe it’s a death sentence. They believe that it has no cure nor remedy which is contrary to the reports of recovery from the disease. However, with more than 7,839 people infected and 226 deaths recorded already in Nigeria as indicated on Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) website (NCDC, 2020) and 112,290 people infected and 3,359 deaths recorded across Africa as indicated on Africa Centre for Disease Control (ACDC) website(ACDC, 2020), it is crystal clear that the virus is not selective as it keeps infecting the rich and the poor alike and could potentially spread on African soil if not combated since the figures are becoming more frightening daily. The false claims that the virus could be cured or prevented by drinking the alcoholic substance, eating of garlic, lemon, and good food to strengthen body immune system and the likes, have been debunked by the WHO and many medical experts around the world. The only way out of it at the moment is premised on personal hygiene - which includes regular hand washing, social distancing, avoidance of large gathering, and regular decontamination of the environment, etc. A lot of media files (most often video, audios) have been circulating on social media with the claim that some drugs combination can potentially reduce symptoms, unfortunately, there are no data or known research conducted by the authors of this information to back up their recommendations. An illiterate or literate that cannot source for a fact will hook-line- and sink such an idea and drug abuse becomes the order of the day. A strict measure was recently introduced by a popular social media platform “WhatsApp” with more than 2 billion people in over 180 countries across the world to limit viral message forwards to one chat at a time to stem the rapid spread of COVID19 misinformation (CNBC, 2020). Although a user could theoretically still forward the same message to individuals or groups one by one it is believed this limitation will be effective in preventing a spread of untrue information about the Pandemic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.2.     STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Covid-19 pandemic poses multiple threats to the environmental health of the university. The students and staff of the university are affected by the disease, the false information surrounding the disease, and the stringent preventive measures stipulated to aid in mitigating the spread of the pandemic.

The general society including the university society need to be educated on the need to adherence to the COVID-19 preventive measures, the effects of abuse of the preventive measures and how best to adapt in with the new mode of function in our society towards a healthier environment.

1.3.    OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

A.       To understand the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria

B.       To study the different COVID-19 preventive measures

C.       To highlight the effects of the COVID-19 preventive measure on our environmental health

D.       To educate the public about COVID-19 and separate facts from fictions



Delivery Assurance: This Project material is delivered within 15-30 Minutes. Click below to download complete material.


Download Complete Project Material

Search for more Project topics and Materials on this websites. There are numerous Project Topics, enter the topic and Click to Search.