Between Ebola, HIV/AIDS and road traffic crashes II

All I know or have heard about Ebola is as provided by the media, including the efforts of our courageous and heroic health personnel, who gave their all to keep you and I Ebola-free. Despite this luck on my part, I must confess that I have since become passionate about hand sanitisers and all the […]

All I know or have heard about Ebola is as provided by the media, including the efforts of our courageous and heroic health personnel, who gave their all to keep you and I Ebola-free. Despite this luck on my part, I must confess that I have since become passionate about hand sanitisers and all the health habits which my big brother, the former minister of health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, counseled us to imbibe.
But since 1996, when I ported from the media to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), I have lost loved ones, colleagues and friends through road traffic crashes while others, including people I know and people I don’t know in addition to my neighbours, are either confined in wheel-chairs and maimed for life or traumatised forever over the loss of a bread-winner. As we count down on the end of year rush and the heightened motorisation of December with the attendant crashes, deaths will occur to some while driving due to what I often refer to as irresponsible driving; others will be involved due to the error of one man who chose to drive not by the rules while a good number will sustain injuries and deaths that will occur right in their sitting rooms caused by a drunk driver, a novice driver or even a malfunctioned vehicle. Since I began this series last week, my hope still remains that of drawing your attention to these killers; Ebola, HIV/AIDS and road traffic crashes. Beyond this,  my concern  is to also alert you on the level of attention given to two of these killers; Ebola and HIV/AIDS while road traffic crashes  which kill more, maim and traumatise more, are treated with kid gloves or better still, lip service. I do not know if you read last week’s piece which focused on road traffic crashes. I however, do hope you will follow me all through this series as I am hopeful that these reminders will provoke you to turn in your reactions on this series even if your views differ from mine or even if you have fresh or additional information to pass onto our numerous readers.
Today my focus is on the newest killer; Ebola, which according to WHO out of 13,241 reported cases, 4,950 have died. This figure is no doubt frightening and calls for sustained efforts especially in our country despite the clean slate announced recently by WHO on our ability to keep Ebola at bay.  I am not a health expert and cannot claim competence in talking about Ebola and HIV/AIDS unlike road traffic crashes. Like I did last week, I will still rely on WHO as our guide to avoid unnecessary bias. Information surfed from WHO sources provide the following fact sheets on Ebola; Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. It is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through Taylor-Taylor (humans-humans) transmission; the average case fatality rate is around 50 percent although case fatality rates have varied from 25to 90 percent in past outbreaks.
You might think that the first fatal car crash would be after Karl Benz built his famous patent Motorwagen in 1886 but the first fatal car accident is generally recognised as the death of the scientist Mary Ward in 1889.It was reported that she was thrown out of the vehicle as it turned a sharp bend. Unlike road traffic crashes, which date this far back and occurred in Parsonstown outside Africa, the “first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rainforest.” The other fact sheet states that the Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. It first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks; one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name. The current outbreak in West Africa, (first cases notified in March 2014), is the largest and most complex outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air (one traveller only) to Nigeria, and by land (1 traveller) to Senegal. There are five species that have been identified: Zaire, Bundibugyo, Sudan, Reston and Taï Forest. The first three, Bundibugyo, ebolavirus, Zaire, ebolavirus, and Sudan, ebolavirus have been associated with large outbreaks in Africa. The virus causing the 2014 West African outbreak belongs to the Zaire species.
Like I said earlier, the recent outbreaks in West Africa occurred in major urban as well as rural areas confirming my position last week that Ebola is a black man’s burden. Like road traffic crashes which have no known cure except majorly attitudinal change among others, there is as yet no licensed treatment proven to neutralise the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development. There are currently no licensed Ebola vaccines but two potential candidates are undergoing evaluation.Ebola, road traffic crashes and HIV/AIDSdwell more on preventive measures that emphasis change in human behaviour.
Health experts say the fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts which is introduced into humans through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelopes and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest. It spreads through human-to-human transmission like the Nigerian example, with the arrival of Sawyer, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids. However, key to prevention whichrelies on applying a package of interventions, is community engagement which like in the case of road traffic crashes should focus on several factors such as reducing the risk of wildlife-to-human transmission from contact with infected fruit bats or monkeys/apes and the consumption of their raw meat. Reducing the risk of human-to-human transmission from direct or close contact with people with Ebola symptoms, particularly with their bodily fluids