31st July, 2014
The Ebola epidemic, which has killed over 600 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, has become a regional tragedy. It must be quickly contained before it claims more lives or spreads to more countries and continents and throws the entire world into chaos. It was first discovered in 1976 in Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo.
The current outbreak began in Guinea in March this year and quickly spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Last Friday, Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American citizen who travelled from Monrovia to Lagos died of an Ebola infection. He was on his way to Calabar in Cross River State for a conference when he collapsed on arrival at Lagos airport. Test conducted on him later proved he had contracted the disease which eventually claimed his life. Fifty-nine people who had contact with Sawyer have been quarantined and under observation to ascertain their health status.
The Ebola virus, which kills as many as 90 percent of those who catch it, has spread to 60 locations and infected many people, including doctors and nurses catering for the patients.
Two American aid workers have also tested positive, and a doctor at Liberia’s biggest hospital, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia, has died of the disease. Liberia has closed its borders to try and contain the outbreak of the highly infectious disease.
The President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has declared a national Ebola emergency. Her counterparts in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria must also act with equal urgency. Public awareness must be raised and more medical personnel must be put to work to trace patients’ contacts with others.
With a mobile population, porous borders and lack of medical facilities for early detection, the virus has continued to spread like wild fire in West Africa. In the case of Sawyer, he travelled to Nigeria aboard ASky Airline with other passengers. The government has closed the hospital where he died and other passengers on the flight are being identified, tested and monitored.
Infected persons must be isolated in hospitals to prevent the virus from spreading to others while they are receiving treatment. Bodies of victims must also be disposed of with care because the virus, present in bodily fluids, including sweat, blood or urine, is most infectious at the end-stage. Vomiting and diarrhea are some of the symptoms of the virus that has no cure but could be prevented by not having contact with sufferers, maintaining simple personal hygiene such as washing of hands with soap frequently, cleaning the environment, avoiding eating of bush meat such as rodents and bats which is one of the primary carriers of the virus.
With the world now a global village, the Ebola virus may spread from West Africa to other regions and continents. The entire world must act decisively to contain the spread of the virus and save our planet from a major catastrophe.