Ebola: Not over until it’s over

By Rotimi Fasan

AT what point is it safe to declare a place and a people safe from the menace of a dangerous disease? When can a potential plague of devastating proportions be viewed as under effective control?

These are the kind of questions that should occupy the sleeping and waking hours of Nigeria’s health authorities, especially now that the Health Minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, hints at the possibility of rescinding an earlier government decision to postpone resumption of primary and secondary schools in the country.

It was just over two weeks ago that the Federal Government announced the closure of all summer schools and extended till the middle of October the reopening of primary and secondary schools presently on recess. This move, the Ministry of Education says, was part of measures to contain the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria.

But no sooner was that announcement made than proprietors of private educational institutions voiced their opposition to the decision. For very obvious reasons their opposition to the government decision is understandable.

While many of them might still want to and could, indeed, be cutting corners, the fact that the decision is being enforced with seriousness in urban areas like Lagos makes opposition by proprietors of educational institutions inevitable. Closing schools and other places of educational pursuits for so long is a direct dig at their means of livelihood and sources of income.

Their argument that the decision was not well thought through as government has not closed down other public and private places like places of worship or, in fact, markets where people congregate in large numbers is not without merit.

Yet it stands to reason that a government aware of its limitations in terms of containing the spread of a highly lethal and infectious disease like the Ebola virus disease cannot be too proactive on a matter like this.

Facilities available for the control and management of the disease, including the required expertise are not at their very best in the country. If America and other countries like Britain could quickly evacuate their few nationals infected by the disease while working in parts of Africa- if these persons could be repatriated for immediate medical attention, Africans infected with the disease have nowhere to go even as their countries lack facilities and resources for effective control.

Perhaps if Dr. Amayo Adadevoh and others who succumbed to the disease had been given immediate access to the few drugs available for the Ebola disease they would be here today. But this was not the case.

These people died for the simple reason that they were from a part of the world without access to drugs like Zmapp which those who own it claim is yet to scale the stage of clinical trials and so could not be made available to the general public. But the restrictive use of the effective drugs does not extend to citizens of these foreign countries.

This then tells us all that commercial rather than clinical/medical considerations were at the root of the decision not to release Zmapp for  use in Africa. It is for   such same reason of commerce that proprietors of schools are calling for reconsideration of the decision to extend the resumption date of schools.

Since Nigeria’s index case, Patrick Sawyer, imported the Ebola virus into Nigeria the country has not been at peace. All the cases that have been reported have been traceable to this single source yet the country cannot confidently say that it is totally safe. True, our health authorities appear to be doing a lot in the circumstances, attending to infected persons and sensitising the public to how the disease spreads. The media too has not been lax. But the risk is far from over.

If only one or two people are responsible for the introduction of the disease into the country, we should imagine what chaos we would all be in should the disease spread further into the interior of Nigeria, carried by many.

Health experts around the world, including the WHO believe there might be more cases of people infected with the disease than is reported. Whether this is true or not it stands to reason that we should be extremely careful.

It would be far wiser for us to err on the side of discretion than to live under the illusion that we are home safe and dry as far as the management and containment of Ebola is concerned. There is still a lot for us to be worried about. It is good to know that a few more of the people under close watch for having been infected with the disease are being successfully treated and sent back home. But we cannot even be slightly complacent.

While our airports might be under strict control, that is definitely no the case with our land borders that are quite vulnerable and unprotected. The fact that large parts of our borders are being crossed and criss-crossed by insurgents should also worry us.

There is no reason to imagine that insurgents who murder Nigerians in their hundreds in one fell swoop in the North East, for example, would be concerned about the control of any disease. While we police the parts of the borders under the control of our immigration, what assurances are there that other flanks are not being opened for the spread of the disease?

These are some of the reasons Nigeria’s health authorities have to be patient in declaring victory in its control of Ebola. It is obvious that its reconsideration of its ban on the reopening of schools is out of sheer pressure from school owners. But reopening schools is not by itself a problem, once government is satisfied that measures are in place to monitor and contain any potential threat.

What is worrisome is the fact that we might soon find ourselves in a position where our government lulls itself to sleep, believing that the coast is clear for it to celebrate its victory over Ebola. Only for us- forbid it God!- to wake up one morning to the news that the disease has gone out of control.

Experts elsewhere have warned that controlling Ebola could yet take six months at the very least. We would be helping ourselves by extending that projected date for six more additional months, making it one whole year before we can even start imagining that we might be safe. Ebola is a present and immediate threat to mankind; an insidious killer that should not be given a quarter at all.


- Culled from: http://www.vanguardngr.com