A study behaviour of travellers' disease symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea among residents in Osun state, Nigeria

Abstract

Diarrhoea disease is one of the main reasons for absenteeism at work and school in developed and developing countries, thereby contributing to economic losses. The explosion in the number of street food vendors hawking ready-to-eat food is reported in every local government in Nigeria including Osun. Street foods are frequently contaminated, thereby contributing to the number of food borne diseases. Individuals who presented to the clinics with travelers’ disease symptoms (diarrhoea and vomiting) in the randomly selected clinics in Iwo, Osogbo, Ile-Ife and Ilesha townships in Osun State were invited to participate in the survey. In the period of July-October 2015, 57 completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Overall, 42.1% were males and 57.9% were females. About 22.8% of the participants were <5 years old, 15.8% were between 10-19 years, 36.8% were 20-40 years, 19.3% were 40-60 years. Those that experienced symptoms of travelers disease (diarrhea and vomiting), were 87.7%, while 10.3% were unsure .Furthermore, 59.6% consumed food purchased from street vendors and 40.4% claimed they did not consume street vended foods. In addition, 43.9% reported >6 number of stools/24 h. The most frequently consumed foods identified were moin-moin, amala/iyan, rice and satchet water. A strong correlation was found between having symptoms of travelers disease and consumption of street vended foods (ρ (57) =0.357**, p<0.06). This study concludes that travelers’ disease diarrhea and vomiting) is persistent and has high prevalence in Osun State, Nigeria.