Ebola, disease of conscience
As a nation we are not known to be meticulous. And we take the Mickey out of every opportunity to flaunt our lack of organization. But the ramifications of this clean slate on Nigeria by the WHO must be properly scrutinized if we are to remain healthy as a people and free from the ravages […]
As a nation we are not known to be meticulous. And we take the Mickey out of every opportunity to flaunt our lack of organization. But the ramifications of this clean slate on Nigeria by the WHO must be properly scrutinized if we are to remain healthy as a people and free from the ravages of Ebola.
We happen by the circumstances of our poor medical sector which has turned our hospitals into final bus stops or mortuaries rather than the consultancy clinics which they were in 1984, to be the most prominent medical tourists in the world. We travel to Dubai, Ghana, Europe, America and even the Niger Republic for medical attention. But since the outbreak of Ebola, the west which would gladly take us in on medical recommendation has wisely domesticated our search for the Ebola cure.
It is all because many of our medical practitioners worship money and fail humanity. Some of our nurses and doctors have since lost their human faces and are influenced by the vulnerability of their patients to do anything to stay alive. But the sector which is known to be absolutely dysfunctional is the one bringing encomium to the country. Predominantly it is because poverty which used to be the disease of conscience is replaced by Ebola. One size fits all.
This endorsement may cause many Nigerians to drop their guards. Unsuspecting people may fall victim of the likes of Dr Ike Sam Enemuo, who sneaked an Ebola carrier into his hospital, an indiscretion that eventually cost him his life. Many would also assume, with the successes being recorded globally that Ebola is treatable, so don’t panic. The reported death of Enemuo due to Ebola virus triggered panic at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) where his body was said to be in the morgue
But the virus is binary, so it demands that you be clean not dirty. Public education, public cleansing and personal hygiene are critical. Like what happened in Lagos where the state and Federal Governments are scrambling for credits over the defeat of Ebola, what Nigerians need to do is to continue to watch the progression of this kill-all virus with eagle-eyes. Other countries are doing just that and because of the lethal nature of the virus they are even throwing their weights behind West Africa to stop it from crossing the Atlantic.
Not even with Lassa fever was Africa this segregated upon. Lassa, named for a Nigerian village in 1969, is also zoonotic-carried by rats as well as blood, semen, urine, saliva, faeces, breast milk, and the coup de grace, airborne. Nigeria’s Minister of Health Mr Alhassan said 29 million were at risk. God help us if a bag of peanuts has a Lassa rat. It kills 6,000 a year, dozens of medical staff, but it was not declared a pandemic. By comparison, Ebola’s kill credentials of infected to dead annually shows that in 1976 — 600 to 440; 1986 — 3 to 0; 1996 — 100 to 66; 2007 — 420 to 220; and 2014 — 9,000 to 4,000 all over Africa. So what caused a spike in 2014?
More nastiness, Boko Haram, body-washing; going to the witch doctor first then white medicine when all else fails are a major factor. Ebola is a severe acute viral illness often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. EVD spreads through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people.
So far no vaccine for EVD is commercially available. During this latest outbreak, EVD has killed approximately 30% of those infected in Nigeria, where insurgency has created large-scale displacement of vulnerable communities. 21 cases of EVD were so far confirmed including seven deaths. The World Health Organization reports the virus seems to be contained in Nigeria at the moment. It is a scary record by any standards. But we are never the less beating our chests because we have been certificated by the WHO.
On the basis of one death from Ebola in the United States, The New York Times, in an editorial, called for strict vigilance, only stopping short of the closure of US frontiers to, literally, anyone from West Africa. It’s interesting that the conference on the Ebola crisis in West Africa, is taking place in London’s safe and sterile surroundings, close to Harley Street in case of emergency.
But the fact underlies the politics of the virus. Ordinarily we can agree that Ebola is the west’s gift to Africa after HIV is gradually receding as a major killer of the African people. It’s another African crisis, the latest in a long line of such, all of which have pricked the conscience of the West, but never to any degree.
Ebola is not today’s news. In 1976 the Ebola River near Yambuku village in DR Congo appeared sexy. Curious white people came, saw and sent the virus home for study. Why didn’t Africans think of adopting a methodology for containing the virus? It is because the west understands that Ebola is about money and politics. Africans appear too busy to study anything, while Europe has always been eager to show that it is all heart. We should therefore not bask in the glory of other nations who are not supporting the cause because they like to but because they have to.
Does Nigeria “the giant of Africa” have a CDC to test for Ebola or Lassa fever? What is Nigeria doing about Ebola? These are the questions that should preoccupy us rather than the certification which has not closed our border routes through which several more Patrick Sawyers can enter Nigeria undetected.