Porous borders, worker exposure overshadow Ebola alert

Porous land borders and exposure of health workers are major concerns Nigeria faces in the wake of outbreaks of Ebola virus disease for first time on record in West Africa. More than 83 people have died among some 130 cases in the outbreak in less than two weeks, including two deaths reported lately in Liberia […]

Porous land borders and exposure of health workers are major concerns Nigeria faces in the wake of outbreaks of Ebola virus disease for first time on record in West Africa.

More than 83 people have died among some 130 cases in the outbreak in less than two weeks, including two deaths reported lately in Liberia and one in Ghana—after the outbreak started in Guinea, Gambia, Sierra Leone.

Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told a briefing in Abuja that there was “cause for anxiety for many reasons.”

“Firstly, Nigeria is contiguous with other countries contiguous to the states already named. Secondly, Nigerians travel a lot, and third is that it is so easy to monitor what happens through ports but it is a challenge when it comes to our land borders.”

Vector anxiety

This comes amidst anxiety over vector-borne diseases, which currently affects millions of Nigerians and became the theme for this year’s World Health Day.

He said health workers were usually in first line of dangers because “in our anxiety to help others we fail to heed universal precautions.”

Chukwu said the rumoured lone suspected case of Ebola last week, later confirmed to be Dengue fever, was “necessity for us to be very vigilant”, noting similarity between both haemorrhagic (bleeding-causing) fevers.

Nigeria isn’t new to haemorrhagic fevers as Yellow fever and Dengue and Lasssa, but Ebola is considered the most virulent of them, killing nine out of 10 people it infects.

Nigerian Centre for Disease Control will need to rehash its training of officials in spotting haemorrhagic fevers “and go through our ports and land borders to strengthen our port health services,” said Chukwu.

Even when an outbreak occurs despite efforts, said Chukwu, “we should have the ability to know where to take those patients. By now I expect the NCDC has already identified wards to keep those patients. Even if it just one now in the country, we should know where it is. The practice now where every suspected case is moved to Irrua [specialist teaching hospital] is not the best.”

Expectations

The World Health Organisation estimates Nigeria has more than 25% of Africa’s burden of vector-borne disease, said Dr Ruiz Gama Vaz, WHO country representative for Nigeria.

At least half the country’s population is prone to diseases borne by vectors they make daily contact with—including insects, snails and mammals, which harbour microorganisms that cause anything from malaria and fevers to blindness.

“We can protect ourselves and our families by simple measures as keeping our environment clean and less conducive to vector breeding and survival,” he said.

The vectors “exist in our community as we can do a lot of stop them,” said Isioma Anabuogu, coordinator of Nigeria Guinea-worm Eradication Programme.

She suggests clean environment, confinement and vaccination of household animals, reporting suspected diseases, proper cooking of food and care about local delicacies as dogs and bats that could also constitute risks.

“Nobody should die from bite or diseases caused by any of those vectors,” she warned, emphasising the day’s theme Small Bite, Big Threat.