Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Hurrah to Nigeria!



In its September 30, 2014 edition, The New York Times echoed earlier news reports that the West African country of Nigeria has contained the outbreak of Ebola within its territory. For details, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/health/ebola-outbreak-in-nigeria-appears-to-be-over.html?_r=0. I salute Nigeria’s governmental authorities, Nigeria’s medical and scientific communities, Nigeria’s civic society and related international organizations and pertinent members of the international community for coming together and waging what appears like a successful war against the much-dreaded Ebola. Nigeria’s experience has thus become a model for the global community as it strives to deal effectively with Ebola’s threat to humanity as we know it.

Given what we have read about the havoc that this terrible disease has wrought in Nigeria’s fellow West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, Nigeria deserves accolades for moving with what I have chosen to describe as military dispatch to arrest the Ebola monster. An update on the website of the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Nigeria had twenty confirmed cases of Ebola and eight deaths. See the table 1 below.

Country
Case definition
Cases
Deaths
Nigeria
Confirmed
19
7

Probable
1
1
Suspected
0
0
All
20
8
Senegal
Confirmed
1
0

Probable
0
0
Suspected
0
0
All
1
0

Total
21
8

Table 1: Courtesy of the World Health Organization (WHO) (http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/135600/1/roadmapsitrep_1Oct2014_eng.pdf?ua=1)

That same WHO update reports that “the number of patients with Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone [has] surpassed 6500 with more than 3000 deaths" (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en/). See table 2 below.

Country
Case Definition
Cases
Cases in past 21 days
Cases in past 21 days/total cases
Deaths
Guinea
Confirmed
950
230
24%
535

Probable
170
14
8%
170
Suspected
37
23
62%
5
All
1157
270
23%
710
Liberia
Confirmed
927
280
30%
890

Probable
1656
687
42%
664
Suspected
1113
672
60%
444
All
3696
1639
44%
1998
Sierra Leone
Confirmed
2076
788
38%
574

Probable
37
0
0%
37
Suspected
191
106
56%
11
All
2304
894
39%
622
Total

7157
2800
39%
3330

Table 2: courtesy of the World Health Organization (WHO) (http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/135600/1/roadmapsitrep_1Oct2014_eng.pdf?ua=1)


One must caution, however, that for Nigeria, this time period--that is, this international recognition that it has contained Ebola though magnificently praise-worthy--does not call for premature euphoria. Nigerian authorities, Nigerian medical and scientific communities should not lower their guards. Yesterday’s report that the United States has recorded its first domestically-diagnosed case of Ebola (ttp://preview.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cdc-confirms-first-ebola-case-diagnosed-in-the-united-states/ar-BB6EA9s) should serve as a warning that there is no safe haven from this nightmarish phenomenon though, ironically, it may serve to speed up an urgently-needed vaccine for it. For Nigeria, strict vigilance, preventive and curative preparedness must still be maintained now and in the coming weeks and months until a vaccine is ready for this latest international plague. 

This is no time for unguarded business as usual or for a relaxation of any preventive and curative programs and processes that have been put in place. Research, within Nigeria and in collaboration with pertinent international and national organizations, needs to continue and even stepped up until a mass produce able cure and vaccine for Ebola are developed. Nigeria should see itself as capable of generating what the world is yearning for—a permanent cure and vaccine for Ebola.

As a social critic, I have, more often than not, produced essays that bemoaned Nigeria’s lapses in various spheres of life. I must confess that this occasion is one of rare moments in that nation's history, when I found it necessary, not to criticize, but to praise and salute Nigeria for a job well done. 

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, and Federal Health Minister, Dr. Onyebuchi Chukwu deserve to be especially commended for mobilizing and leading both the nation and the populous state of Lagos out of an existential threat that befell the Nigerian nation rather suddenly. Their success attests to what Nigeria, as a nation acting collectively, is capable of achieving in various spheres of human endeavor.

Yes, in an earlier piece, I had opined that given Nigeria’s membership in the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS), the attendant heavy cross-border human traffic that this regional economic group necessarily entails, and the emergent Ebola-infestation of three fellow ECOWAS nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Nigeria should have foreseen a Patrick Sawyer (American-Liberian) index occurrence and prepared accordingly. The September 15, 2014 testimonial by Ebola survivor, Dr. Ada Igonoh (http://www.bellanaija.com/2014/09/15/must-read-through-the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death-dr-ada-igonoh-survived-ebola-this-is-her-story/) showed that the reverse was the case but that Nigerian authorities gradually and eventually came to grips with this grave national challenge.

All available evidence demonstrates that defeating Ebola (and it must be defeated across the globe) calls for transparency from all parties—the unfortunate victims, the health monitors, the healers, and the post-healing evaluators and facilitatory national and international bodies. President Barack Obama could not have said it better when he cried out recently that Ebola represents “a potential threat to global security” (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/16/remarks-president-ebola-outbreak).

Obama announced that the U.S. planned to send 3,000 U.S. troops “to a new command center in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, to help with the transportation of supplies and other personnel.” Those solders would “construct 17 health care facilities of 100 beds each to isolate and treat victims. The plan included the setting up of a US facility “to train 500 health care workers per week” (http://www.voanews.com/content/us-sending-troops-to-liberia-expanded-ebola-effort/2451118.html).

The United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO), America’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and pertinent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also been energetic in their contributions to global humanity’s ongoing response to the monster.
As Nigeria celebrates the 54th anniversary of her achievement of political independence from British colonialism on October 1,  1960, for at least once, I found a concrete reason to say “hearty congratulations” to the ruling elite of Nigeria for its victorious war against Ebola although it’s understandable that the battle is far from over. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!