Ebola Virus: How Prepared Is Nigeria?
By Odimegwu Onwumere
After a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja in
April, the Nigeria's Minister of Information, Labaran Maku declared that there
had not been any testified case of Ebola Virus outbreak in Nigeria. This was a
follow-up to the information the honourable minister said that the Federal
Ministry of Health briefed the FEC on the believed outburst of Ebola Virus in
Nigeria.
"The FEC was briefed by the Federal Ministry of Health
on the alleged outbreak of Ebola virus in Nigeria. FEC was informed that the
health ministry expert checked out the reports of purported outbreak of the
disease and found none to be true," Maku had said.
Continuing, Maku reassured that the health ministry was ever
ready to control the virus in the dawn of an outbreak in the country. Maku
counselled that, "Citizens are reassured that there is no Ebola fever in
the country and all the checks so far undertaken declare clearly that we don't
have it. The ministry has assured that should there be anything like that
within our boundary it will be quickly tackled."
Nigerians were warned to always be concerned about their
health statuses. The Ministry of Health had also admonished those citizens with
symptoms such as high fever, headache, severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and
bleeding to report to the health authorities.
The warning was on-the-cards for Nigerian citizens who had
travelled to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia believed to be countries that
have been dealt with by the syndrome.
Health professionals around the world are worried over the
disorganized medical infrastructure to deal with the epidemic, which according
to the World Health Organisation, WHO, is novel to western Africa. It is
believed that the virus had claimed over two-thirds of the infected patients in
the areas that the bug had been noticed.
According to a report by WHO, about 110 people had seemingly
died from the virus in Guinea and about 10 people were kneel-bent by the virus
in Liberia. Commenting on the danger of the disease, Keiji Fukuda, assistant
director-general, WHO, had said: “This is one of the most challenging Ebola
outbreaks we have ever faced.”
With a population of over 1.5 million, Conakry, the capital
of Guinea was reported with about 20 of the creepy-crawly cases. Senegal had shut her border with Guinea, with
presupposed patients with the disease reported in Sierra Leone. A source said
that one of the suspected cases was discovered to have died in a desolated
ward.
How prepared the Federal Government of Nigeria is against
this backdrop is left for time to tell. Eva Marie Coll Seck, Senegal’s health
minister, was quoted as saying by AFP: “We have everything in place to take
measures against Ebola. We have a well-oiled system, which we are perfecting
daily.”
While the Nigerian Government was reassuring its citizens of
an Ebola Virus-free country, seven out of nine suspected patients were
confirmed in Mali. The neighbouring Ghana also has feared that the virus had
entered the country even though that she discarded the presence of the virus in
the country just like her neighbouring Nigeria.
But while the Federal Government was with high hopes and
giving gratuitous hopes to its citizens, Stephane Hugonnet, a WHO medical
officer, reportedly said: “Obviously there is a risk that other countries might
be affected, therefore we absolutely need to remain vigilant.”
National Health Bill
The Nigerian Senate had recently passed what was regarded as
“the highly controversial National Health Bill 2014” into law. This followed
its third reading in the house. How this law would assist the country in being
vigilant about the Ebola Virus cannot be ascertained, even though that it has
been said that the bill was targeted to establish a support for the directive,
supervision and development of the country's health system.
It’s an acknowledged fact that before the bill was passed
into law it suffered numerous hiccups since Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa (PDP-Delta), who
was the sponsor, submitted it. Although, the senator on one occasion had said
that the bill that was once regarded as controversial, would help the country
to realize the Universal Health Coverage and meet the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) target.
"We all know that the primary health care is within the
purview of the local government councils, the states and the Federal Government
actually do give support programmes apart from technical support.
“This bill also seeks to provide one per cent of the
consolidated revenue fund for the purpose of the development of the primary
health care.
“The bill is also for the purpose of providing health care
insurance to certain class of people who are actually deprived.
“The 50 per cent of the one percent fund that is provided
for in clause 11 under a Basic Health Care Fund will be utilised by the NHIS
for providing health coverage.
“This will cover pregnant women, children who are under five
and the elderly and physically challenged persons," Okowa had said.
Okowa was of the belief that part of the funds would be used
to endow the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) as well as train and re-train health
experts, adding that the country needed PHC dearly with at least each ward
having one PHC; but he feared that the country was yet to have well trained
personnel. He added that the country needed to train such experts and have the
effective drugs, facilities and equipments in place.
One of the suggestions that Okowa gave that could help in
the fight against the arrival of the Ebola Virus in the country and other
diseases was that states could also partake in civilizing primary health
centres through a complementary fund that would enable them to profit from the
combined revenue fund.
In his words: "Fifty per cent of the fund shall be used
for the provision of basic minimum package of health services to citizens in
eligible primary or secondary health care facilities through the NHIS. Twenty
per cent of the fund shall provide essential vaccines and consumables for
eligible primary healthcare facilities. Fifteen per cent shall be for the
provision and maintenance of facilities, equipment and transport for PHC
facilities.”
Investigations revealed that one of the benefits of the
National Health Bill was to put an end to the incessant squabbles that had
existed among professional bodies in the health sector, making a roadmap for
the duties and responsibilities of each of the professional body.
No Restrictions To The Affected Areas
According to a source, Ebola Virus first had its presence in
the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976. In 2012, about 29 people died of the
virus in Guinea. It was an inspirational experience in Guinea, when experts
said that they saw victims that recovered from the virus, even though that it’s
believed that the outbreak is not over in that country, just as Nigeria should
not rule out the outbreak of the virus in the country someday, as long as it’s
not earnestly being controlled in the country.
Dr Marie-Claire Lamah from Medecins Sans Frontieres in
Conakry, and MSF spokesperson Sam Taylor, were among the persons who had
expressed enchantment at seeing patients hale and hearty again from the
disease. This was on the hill that in 2000, about 224 people died out of a
total of 425 inveterate, contaminated patients in Uganda, making it the year
that the country witnessed the largest-known Ebola scourge.
In all of this, reports nonetheless, were that WHO had not
suggested any travel or trade constraints to Guinea, Liberia, Mali or Sierra
Leone, even though that the world health body had not stopped showing great
concern about it. Even though that Nigeria had not recorded any case of the
virus, on April 9 2014, the Federal Government did not shy away to own-up that
Nigeria was in threat owing to the level the virus was ravaging other African
countries.
“Ebola has been
moving eastward towards Nigeria as well and we are already facing danger from
the Central African Republic, even with what is happening in Congo, people are
also migrating to Chad and, Cameroon are also in our borders. So, Nigeria is in
danger but we have recently said that in addition to the leaflets that we are
producing for Lassa and other fevers, we will now emphasise Ebola fever,” said
Onyebuchi Chukwu, minister of health, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC)
meeting.
Remedy
Connoisseurs had advised that the Federal Government had to
secure the country’s borders and make sure that those coming into and going out
of the country are well monitored. In a statement apparently by Osahon
Enabulele, President, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA): “Anywhere you have
movement of people from one location to the other. The likelihood of having the
virus spread is high. That calls to attention the need for us to check our
borders.”
Enabulele continued: “More often than not, when there are
movements of people from the affected countries, especially when you have a
very defective, weak surveillance system at the entry points – land, air and
sea – people from infected regions or localities can be given access into your
country. That leads to the possibility of having it spread into new
territories, especially if there is contact with those infected persons.”
He added: “If those surveillance mechanisms are not on
ground and if the level of suspicion is not high, then you could have an
infected person coming into your environment. An Ebola patient will start
manifesting the symptoms no more than 25 days after he contracts the virus.”
The director-general, Nigerian Institute for Medical
Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos, Innocent Ujah had suggested to the country and
the citizens to maintain a high level of hygiene and sanitation, since there is
nonexistence of qualitative treatment and human vaccine for the virus.
He maintained that there should be severe awareness in the
country about the dreaded virus in the areas of sensitization, for people to go
for medical checkups regularly. Adding, he said that in the event of the virus,
citizens should be attended to by professionals wearing protective equipments
such as gloves, since the disease is believed to be transmittable.
Odimegwu Onwumere, a Poet/Writer, writes from Rivers State.
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