In developing countries, e.g., Nigeria, several communities have limited access to sanitation and sanitation facilities, thus such communities dump their solid and liquid wastes indiscriminately. The aim of this study was to assess access to sanitation, and compare basic sanitation facilities between upland and coastal communities of Akwa Ibom State. With a cross-sectional design, 420 respondents were selected and administered questionnaires to obtain information on sanitation and sanitation facilities of the communities using a multi-stage random sampling technique. Result shows that faecal disposal facilities available for upland and coastal communities were respectively 187(89.05%) and 98(46.67%). 30(26.79%) of households defecate in open bodies of water in the coastal areas, while upland communities do not. Also, 9(39.13%) and 64(57.14%) of upland and coastal areas respectively, defecate in bushes/swamps, while 14(60.87%) and 18(16.07%) bury their faeces in pits. On the whole, improved sanitation coverage recorded 61.90% and 38.10% respondents for the rural upland and coastal communities respectively, while unimproved sanitation coverage for upland and coastal communities recorded 31.43% and 68.57% respectively. This indicates that sanitation facilities and coverage are worse in the rural coastal areas. In conclusion, both upland and coastal communities of Akwa Ibom State still lack adequate sanitation, although the upland communities enjoy relatively improved sanitation than the coastal communities.

The prevalence of Vibrio species in shellfish and their seasonal variability in the Great Kwa River estuary (GKWE) were examined. Results revealed a trimodal peak in Vibrio counts, coinciding with meteorological changes and the hot periods of the year. The estuary was constantly faecally polluted, coupled with high rates of infection of shellfish by V. parahaemolyticus 42 (13.6%), V. cholerae non-01 29 (9.4%) and V. alginolyticus 22 (7.1%), thus posing a health risk. The observed seasonal variability and prevalence of Vibrio species infection are of epidemiological significance, and provide a guide for effective control of associated cholera epidemics.

In a recent study, involving the examination of 593 stool samples obtained from randomly selected children from three primary schools in Calabar, Shigella spp. were isolated from 123 (20.7%) of the samples. The infection rate was highest among the younger children with (64.2%) 79/123 of the isolates coming from children under 10 years of age. Infection rate was comparable among boys and girls (p = 0.1). Only two species of Shigella were isolated viz: Shigella flexneri 12.0% (71/593) and Shigella sonnei 8.8% (52/593), in this study. The infection rate was highest in the Government Public Primary school, which also had the highest ratio of pupils per toilet. In all, 24 (19.5%) of the isolates were sensitive to all of the nine antimicrobial agents tested while 67 (54.5%) were resistant to two or more antibiotics. The data generated from this study show that there is a high infection rate of shigellosis among primary school children in this study area and calls for better health education, improved and sustainable sanitation and provision of more functional toilets with running water in the primary schools.

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