[MUST READ & SHARE] Ebola: There Must Be Solution via @iKanzee_RR

PANIC has overtaken many homes over the
latest scourge. Nothing dominates discussions
these days like Ebola, the virus that defies
cure, and appears to defy diagnosis until the
patient is at death’s gate.
All the symptoms are normal for most
Nigerians. We have regular bouts of fever from
either malaria or typhoid or both. We sweat
from our high humidity, whether during the
rainy season or dry weather. Our eyes acquire
features that could have resulted from
malnutrition. We are Ebola suspects in many
ways.
Enough grounds exist for the panic. People
infected die quickly. Those who make contact
with them are the next in the line-up for
death. Here comes a virus that kills the
infected and infects caregivers, unless they
take adequate care.
Adequate care is impossible, considering that
the patients’ status is not known until much
later. Once patients exhibit symptoms of
Ebola, there are high chances that relations
and hospital staff would desert them. These
fears are genuine.
Governments in Lagos and Abuja have done
very well in spreading information on the
virus. There is more work ahead. The outbreak
of the virus shows again the poor state of our
medical facilities. Only a few of them can
detect the virus, still fewer are equipped to
prevent spread of infection to their staff and
other patients.
How many Nigerians know about Ebola? How
many can protect themselves? Exploitation of
the situation has started. The
telecommunications companies have
transferred their unsolicited messages to
Ebola, asking their clients to subscribe to
information on the virus at a cost. We would
have expected that with the billions they make
as profit, they would have run the messages
as public service announcements.
One of the things that gave the virus more
global attention is the infection of two
American charity workers Kent Brantly and
Nancy Writebol. They are currently under
treatment with experimental drugs that other
countries are asking should be extended to
them.
Three leading Ebola experts, among them
Peter Piot, director of the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who co-
discovered the virus in 1976, asked that the
drug be made more widely available.
“It is highly likely that if Ebola were now
spreading in Western countries, public health
authorities would give at-risk patients access
to experimental drugs or vaccines,” according
to the joint statement in a newspaper. “The
African countries where the current outbreaks
of Ebola are occurring should have the same
opportunity.”
The World Health Organisation’s special
meeting next week would explore using
experimental drugs in West Africa.
For Nigerians, Ebola, a virus that thrives in
dirty environments, is also a call to clean up
Nigeria and upgrade our medical facilities.