Illusive Havens Part 2

Image 1: Memorial for villagers murdered by Fulani Herdsmen

Source: http://dailypost.ng/2018/01/11/names-people-killed-fulani-herdsmen-benue-full-list/

Since the early 2000’s, Nigeria’s Middle Belt has suffered from a series of violent attacks by the Fulani Herdsmen on the non-belligerent, indigenous peoples of Benue state, ultimately displacing villagers from ancestral lands and stripping them of their livelihoods (Ode, 2018). The Fulani Herdsmen are considered semi-pastoralists or nomads and are primarily Muslims, whereas most of the sedentary farmers in the region identify as Christians. As of January 2018, a suspected 170,000 displaced persons had entered the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps set up by the Nigerian government across several states in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. These asylum seekers are not considered refugees by the international community, as they remain within Nigeria’s national borders and unfortunately, this means that the resources and services that are available to IDP’s are often inferior to those of refugees. As highlighted in my previous blog post, substandard conditions in refugee camps, or in this case, IDP camps, often lend way to an array of public health problems - in this case, giardiasis.

The prevalence rate of giardiasis in children was determined in a recent epidemiological survey conducted in Guma’s IDP Camp located in the Benue State of Nigeria. Of the 292 children ranging from ages zero to nineteen that were sampled, 118 of them tested positive for giardiasis (Nyamngee & et al., 2009). That is a prevalence rate of 40.4% in the Guma IDP camp compared to a global prevalence rate of 20-30% for low income countries (Minetti & et al., 2016). The statistic provided by this paper is a bit outdated so it may be possible that the global prevalence rate of giardiasis is lower than 30%. However, you can probably gather that a prevalence rate of 40% is a pretty significant figure.

Giardiasis is a horrible intestinal infection caused by the protozoan, Giardia lamblia (Nyamngee & et al., 2009). The parasite can thrive in both rural and non-rural settings and can cause acute and chronic diarrhea in infected individuals. The most common transmission routes are through contaminated water sources and food. After Giardia lamblia cysts enter an individual via water or food consumption, the cysts settle in the gastrointestinal system and develop into adult protozoans. Sexually mature protozoans reproduce cysts in the GI tract where the viable cysts and trophozoites can then exit through feces. Trophozoites die after leaving the human body but unfortunately, cysts can persist for several weeks in the external environment. According to Nyamngee & et al., epidemiological risks such as contaminated water sources, communal toilets, and public defecation were the most significant factors in giardiasis occurrence in IDP camps.

Figure 1: Giardia life pathway

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/dpdx/giardiasis/index.html

One of the main takeaways from Nyamngee, et al. is that prevalence of giardiasis differs among various age groups. The most susceptible demographic was children aged five to nine at a prevalence rate of 48.3% (Nyamngee & et al., 2009). The next demographic group of children ten to fourteen years of age had the second highest prevalence rate. Thus, prevalence rates were inversely proportional to age. The other main takeaway is that communicable diseases play out in a more destructive manner in low-income nations and there is a reason why many communicable and neglected tropical diseases are called “diseases of poverty.” In my opinion, the Nigerian government and the international community must guarantee sanitary conditions in informal settlements set up for IDP’s in addition to ensuring the availability of safe drinking water for both consumption and domestic uses. Just because IDP camps don’t receive mass international attention does not mean that they can be neglected; conditions in refugee camps are not that much better but at the very least, they receive international aid and assistance.

References:

Nyamngee, A. & et al. (2009). Prevalence of giardiasis among children in Guma Refugee camp in Guma LGA, Benue state, Nigeria. Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, University of Ilorin, Nigeria.

Elijah Ode. (2018). Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Guma local government area of Benue state and their information needs. Indian Journal of Library Science and Information Technology, Vol. 3, Issue 1, 1-7.

Minetti, C., & et al. (2016). Giardiasis. BMJ, Volume 355, Issue 5369.