Containing Ebola in Nigeria is Not Containing Coronavirus Outbreak
An Italian citizen, who traveled to Lagos, Nigeria’s economic nerve center, is the first confirmed case of coronavirus in sub Saharan Africa, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
The man works in Nigeria and had returned from Milan to Lagos on February 25, the ministry said. “The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We have already started working to identify all the contacts of the patient, since he entered Nigeria,” the ministry added, urging citizens not to panic. “Citizens must not abuse social media and indulge in spreading misinformation that causes fear and panic,” it said.
Nigeria’s government has been strengthening measures “to ensure an outbreak in Nigeria is controlled and contained quickly,” according to statement from the ministry.
Earlier this week, Algeria confirmed the first case on the continent, another Italian passenger who entered the country on February 17. The patient was placed in quarantine, and under close supervision, according to health authorities in Algeria.
The World Health Organization recently said that an outbreak of coronavirus in Africa would hit the continent harder than China.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country with around 200 million citizens, so there are significant concerns about the impact of coronavirus spreading widely.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,800 people worldwide, the vast majority in mainland China. There have been more than 83,000 global cases, with infections in every continent except Antarctica.
Many of the countries in Africa are already dealing with severe health crises with limited resources, such as Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As a member of the global community, Nigeria also has a responsibility to ensure that her citizens are not caught up in this noxious eddy that has been twirling across the globe. In a country already burdened by poverty and many deadly diseases, including the Lassa fever, which is currently spreading across the states like a wildfire propelled by a harmattan wind, Nigeria cannot afford to start contending with an additional burden of the coronavirus, a disease that is said to be deadlier than Lassa fever for now.
Yet Nigeria has a very good reason to worry; China has become a very important business partner with many countries across Africa, including the continent’s largest economy. The country, which has become a global economic force, is now Nigeria’s biggest creditor. The Chinese are the ones handling the expansion, rehabilitation and modernisation of Nigeria’s railway sector. Besides, instead of Europe, many Nigerian businessmen and traders now prefer to import goods from China and other Asian countries. This means greater interaction between Nigerians and the Chinese at different levels. For these reasons, the Nigerian health authorities should not only give travel advice to such Nigerians but should also monitor those of them who have returned from that country in recent times. That is what countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas are doing in the wake of this outbreak.
Minister Osagie Ehanire at a meeting broad-based in stakeholder forum in Abuja some weeks ago said “While the risk of importation exists, we can assure Nigerians of the nation’s capacity to detect, assess and respond to this and any other public health threats at the point of entry.”
The first case now reported. Whatever is the explanation of the ministry must be critically reviewed.
Do Africa’s most populous nation has the capacity to respond to this deadly virus now that it has finds its way into the country?
There’s no lie detector test or questioning designed to ensure people are telling the truth on arrival at our airports. So what do we do to arrest or detect a carrier from point on entry?
Viruses are teeny-tiny infectious blobs that are made up of either DNA or RNA wrapped up inside a protein coat. They are too small to be seen by a typical light microscope.
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