Online platforms including the deployment of social media tools and apps which according to Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s communication technology minister, helped in reporting time by 75 percent. In a statement made available to AFKInsider, the minister said the success demonstrated the importance of easy-to-access information using ICT tools.
“Test results were scanned to tablets and uploaded to emergency databases and field teams got text message alerts on their phones informing them of the results,” Johnson said.
In Lagos, which is inhabited by about 21 million people — the populations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone combined. House-to-house campaigns were conducted and an Ebola Emergency Response Center was quickly set up to provide prompt information and direction on the disease. The general public was well informed on the symptoms they should look out for, and more importantly, they knew who to call when they suspected someone had Ebola.
Lesson 4: Keep children at home
Both federal and state governments agreed it would be a colossal public health disaster for Ebola to make its way into Nigerian schools. First of all, most public classrooms are highly congested and due to the nature of children, making contacts is unavoidable. The best thing to do was to keep them out of schools until the coast was clear.
Even when the time was appropriate for schools to be reopened, some Nigerians were still not entirely sure it was the right time. There was an extensive division across governments and citizens that further showed the country was seriously concerned about the fate of the children. Other nations should take the children seriously too. While adults could understand why they need to go about with hand sanitizer, it would be difficult, almost impossible, to convince children not to hug their mates after scoring in a football match or pile on one another during a game of tug-of-war.
Moving forward
Like the Governor of Lagos Babatunde Raji Fashola said, while announcing the appointment of a Chief Scientific Officer, Nigeria is not out of danger yet even though the outbreak was contained. As long as the disease continues to travel to Liberia and Guinea and other countries, reinfection is still a possibility.
Therefore, Nigeria should reach out to the affected countries with professional, provisional and institutional support. By helping them, the country is helping itself to ensure that another Patrick Sawyerr does not show up at Nigeria’s ever-busy and sometimes porous borders, seaports and airports.
Furthermore, the nation can also deploy similar strategies in combating other diseases that are endemic in Nigeria — diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhea, HIV/AIDS and breast cancer. These conditions continue to kill thousands of Nigerians every year and more people are newly infected annually.
Even though these diseases have become endemic, the ability of Nigeria to overcome the seemingly insurmountable uphills of the Ebola virus disease proved the nation can solve any medical, security and economic challenges it is facing as long as the challenge is seen as a top priority that deserves collaborative attention and actions.
