1st August, 2014
Kazeem Ugbodaga
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has urged the Federal Government to shut down some of its borders with West African neighbouring countries to avert the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, from gaining entrance into the country.
Fashola, in an interview with State House Correspondents at the State House, Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria on Friday said the issue of Ebola was no longer a local problem but an international one that required alertness and urgent measures being put in place to prevent the spread of the disease.
“This is no longer a local but international problem and this because it is easily transmittable across the borders and boundaries. The Federal Government team has been working with the State’s team. But I think what the Federal Government needed to do at this time is to consider the imperatives of closing some of our borders.
“It is difficult to stop this epidemic and we must now choose the treaty obligations that we hold under the ECOWAS treaty and perhaps short term benefits in terms of economic cost to human life. We must make that choice and consider it very seriously. It is a national security issue and I think that we should give it that attention,” he said.
According to Fashola, “I think that men and women who man our border post, sea, air and land-especially the customs, now know that they are our first line of defence. What happens going forward depends on how professionally they act? It is prevention rather than calling the health professionals to quarantine people.
“That is really the strongest defence now against migration of the virus. We will continue to put out information about what the health risks are, the symptoms. And I have instructed the ministry to enlighten the public on what to do in order not to contact the virus.”
Fashola also said this was the best time to shutdown public urination as they constituted health risk, saying that government had been appealing against ant that this was the best time to stop such act, adding that this was the time that everyone must be at the vanguard of stopping that untidy behaviour.
On the cremation of the deceased Ebola victim in Lagos, Fashola opined that cremation of the dead body was the best option as dead bodies emitted fluid, while giving a pass mark to the state’s cremation policy as the best to deal with such issues.
The governor added that all residents who had contacts with the dead Liberian had been tested and that the result proved negative, noting that there “is still risk because we had that a dead body was brought into the country from Liberia. This means that there is still need for vigilance at our border post. The officials at these places should act professionally and report every incident they suspect.”
I make a slight amendment, when you say that it is all over Africa, it is not all over West Africa. A few West African countries have been at the epicenter of the virus and I believe that some of the countries were Sierra Leone, Liberia. And there is a risk to the entire sub-region. I like to all the health workers at the state level for the very professional manner they have responded while I was out of the country.
Fashola commended the management of First Consultant Medical Centre for choosing life ahead of money by reporting the Ebola case, urging other private hospitals to do likewise.
“I must use this opportunity to appeal to all health institutions that suspects any such case to bring it to the public domain. I believe that what people must begin to do is to imbibe stronger sanitation and preventive measures, especially hand washing periodically with soap and water. And this has been part of our health strategy; this was why we created the department of public health in 2011. This is the emerging global health challenge,” he stated.