On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Nigeria free of Ebola transmission. This announcement was made following the successful completion of two incubation periods (42 days) of the disease without any reported case. Commending Nigeria’s strategy, the global health regulatory body said that the way the African giant contained the spread of the disease was exemplary.
In a statement, WHO said the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), UNICEF and other organizations succeeded in supporting the Nigerian Government.
“Strong public awareness campaigns, teamed with early engagement of traditional, religious and community leaders, also played a key role in successful containment of this outbreak,” WHO said.
Considering the fact that Ebola is ravaging several other West African countries and several other foreign lands including developed countries such as Spain and the U.S., the feat in Nigeria is a much needed relief — a break from the gloomy outlook that Ebola has become associated with.
In Liberia alone, more than 2,000 people have died of the disease while in Nigeria, there were only 20 confirmed cases and eight deaths — West Africa’s lowest mortality rate. This is why the Nigerian success story is worth sharing so that lessons can be learned from how Nigeria handled what could have had worse results.
Lesson 1: No politics
Any Nigerian that is following the uproar resulting from the appointment of an Ebola czar in the U.S. would agree that stakeholders and playmakers in America are not yet taking Ebola seriously.
Even though Nigeria is a highly political nation with the two major political parties always at loggerheads, they interestingly set aside politics and personal differences in order to address the outbreak and contain the spread of the disease. The only time politics was played was weeks after there had been no reported case of the disease in the country.
Even though it is traditional for opposition political parties to perennially point accusing fingers at one another, public health crises should be treated differently because Ebola does not understand politics — it would essentially continue to spread and kill until an all-inclusive martial plan to stem the spread was established.
Lesson 2: The earlier the better
Nigeria’s success story further proves that Ebola is best controlled at the initial stage. The disease could be best managed when urgent steps are quickly taken. Within three days of first reported case, the nation’s first Ebola treatment facility was created, Ebola protective suits were distributed, health workers were promptly educated on what to do, an Ebola quarantine facility began operations, volunteers were recruited and financial incentives were given to health workers to encourage them to work overtime.
Recognizing the importance of taking urgent steps in Ebola control, as effective in Nigeria, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, has called for similar urgent steps in other countries affected by Ebola. Speaking in New York, he also urged donor nations to lend support.
“Ebola is a huge and urgent global problem that demands a huge and urgent global response,” he said.
Lesson 3 – Information is essential
The availability of state-of-the-art infection control centers is not enough reason to undermine the power of information in the control of Ebola and other infectious diseases. Nigerian officials and partners knew that and decided to push out as much information as they could on Ebola prevention, control, symptoms and management. These were shared on various media platforms — both offline and online.
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.