Perhaps, the greatest catastrophe in the
first ever recorded Ebola virus death in Nigeria is not in the scary
incursion of the highly infectious disease, but in the potential
psychological damage the unfortunate incident might set off in the
religion-soaked minds of some Nigerians. For those who read the hand of
the divine in every circumstance, there is a tendency to give an
apocalyptic tint to the emerging tragedy and then activate a mental shut
down, which would effectively pose a threat to the global fight to
contain the deadly epidemic.
In 2011, I got a feedback from a Nigerian
reader in reaction to an article I wrote on the fight against climate
change. It was a very lengthy text message, which I cannot reproduce at
the moment because I eventually lost it; but the message could be
summarised in an abridged paraphrase thus: “Sir, all these efforts to
end climate change will not yield any positive result whatsoever because
it is the will of God, who is determined to even make it worse. Please
tell your readers.” It is obvious that this outlook is shared by many
religious people. In fact, even terrorism has its roots in religious
fundamentalism manifested by the urge to “help hasten God’s judgment on
the doomed world.”
Nevertheless, this is neither new to the
world, nor peculiar to developing countries. During Black Death, an
outbreak of bubonic plague that struck Europe and the Mediterranean area
from 1347 through 1351, killing over 50 million people, contemporary
theologians believed the epidemic had religious cause: God’s judgment on
a sinful humanity. As with earthquakes, floods, and fires, medieval
Christians assumed illness was a call to repentance. So, in response,
some Christians, known as flagellants, began to ritually beat themselves
as penance for their own and for others’ sins. These new groups of
flagellants appeared first in Hungary and Germany and then spread
throughout the rest of northern Europe. They held processions through
towns that lasted for as long as 33 days, each day representing one year
in the life of Jesus Christ. They went from town to town and at each
stop, after a short sermon by the leader, the penitents would whip or
flog themselves before moving on to the next town. Black Death finally
disappeared when humans understood bacteria, and the movement of germs.
Today, Ebola virus disease or EVD,
formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is on the rampage in West
Africa. Ebola virus is named for the Ebola River in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, where it was first identified in 1976. Since then, it
has visited Africa off and on, killing thousands in its wake. A deadly
viral disease characterised by massive bleeding and destruction of
internal tissues, it has killed 672 people across Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone, since it was first diagnosed in February this year. It can
be highly contagious through contact with infected bodily fluids; and
has no known cure at the moment. The only good news is that the fatality
rate of the current outbreak is around 60 per cent, whereas the disease
is known to have a very high fatality rate of about 90 per cent.
As Nigerians, we should determine to
embark on preventive measures against the deadly epidemic. It is nothing
new! We can protect ourselves, our families, and our country, from
Ebola. As Dr. Emeka Obieze, an Enugu-based medical doctor, pointed out
in an interview over the weekend, “This is just a virus. There are
uncountable viruses in every part of the world. There was SARS; there is
MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus); they were all
contained. What we need is a good medical infrastructure and
environmental hygiene culture, to address the current challenge.”
The first thing we could do is to be wary
of bush meat. The dictionary describes bush meat as the flesh of wild
animals killed for food. In this part of the world, it is a delicacy
that has come to be associated with status symbol; and so the more you
want to impress your friends or associates, the more you point to the
“bush meat joint”. In Nigeria and other countries of Africa, poachers of
the legendary African bush meat hunt with abandon. And the reality is
that a few think twice before hunting, cooking, roasting and eating or
selling the meat of a grass cutter or other wild animals.
But the recent outbreak of Ebola virus
has made African countries think twice about this booming trend. Anyaa
Vohiri, Executive Director of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency,
issued a shocking warning to his countrymen, in a recent proclamation:
“Stop eating bush meat! Obviously, our borders do not stop viruses from
crossing, and the killing and cross border trade of our threatened and
protected animals has health and ecological side effects.”
Several incidents of the Ebola virus have
been linked to consumption of the popular West African delicacy. It has
also been established that Ebola virus is fatal in monkeys,
chimpanzees, gorillas, grass cutters and certain types of antelopes and
their ilk. Studies also reveal that outbreaks of Ebola in humans tend to
be preceded by outbreaks among certain species of local animal
populations, especially primates. For instance, the handling of dead
animals by hunters has been linked to nearly all human outbreaks in
Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, during the previous epidemic
waves. So experts recommend that future outbreaks of Ebola in humans
could be predicted and stopped in the early stages by tracking animal
mortality and then sending health teams into villages when increased
animal mortality is detected.
Furthermore, we must all wake up to the
reality that the Ebola threat is nothing less than a national emergency.
It is unacceptable that Nigerian doctors are on strike at a time like
this when all hands – most especially qualified ones – should be on deck
to tackle the menace. Derek Gatherer, a virologist at Britain’s
University of Lancaster, was quoted as saying that Nigeria is a wealthy
country and can do as much as any Western country could do to deal with
the outbreak, better than her poorer West African neighbours. But, truth
is, without organisation and patriotic motivation, not much could be
achieved.
What should our government do? Firstly,
as I pointed out in a recent article, instead of the knee-jerk approach
the government used in constituting Ad hoc/Emergency Rapid Response
Committee months after Lassa Fever hit the country, it should constitute
a Standing Rapid Response Committee immediately, for Ebola. Secondly,
Nigerians should be exposed to every truth about Ebola virus. The
National Orientation Agency and the Ministry of Health should also
deploy the social media as a tool to carry out this campaign because of
its wide reach and acceptance.
Thirdly, Nigeria has poor disease
surveillance infrastructure, and this is disturbing. The government must
urgently improve disease surveillance across the length and breadth of
the nation. Fourthly, government must start a nationwide training of
environmental health officers who would serve as foot soldiers for
direct inspection of communities and ports of entry; and assess risky
practices and traditions across the country. Finally, it is time for the
government to give special attention to our porous borders. When a rare
virus does emerge from its seclusion, modern air travel may offer it a
free ride anywhere in the world; in fact, this is how Ebola practically
flew to Nigeria. It is highly inconvenient in a global age, but those
who close their borders are less likely to have an invasion of the
deadly virus.
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