“For the first time, I saw the government of Nigeria treat a
matter with commendable seriousness. With our tradition of laxity over
some many issues of public interest, I am sure many other Nigerians made
the same observation on the way and alertness the
government tackled the threat of death to the people by Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
With this attitude there is hope that if the government wants to
change the nation it is possible.” These were the encouraging words of
Adebayor Sanyaolu, a businessman and engineer in Abuja when Abuja Metro made inquiries on his reaction to the strategies by the government to tackle the Ebola outbreak.
But the sentiments by Sanyaolu are shared by the larger world and
many citizens. At the current UN General Assembly in New York, the World
Health Organisation (WHO) commended Nigeria’s handling of the outbreak
of the EVD in the country and urged it to provide expertise and build
the capacity of other countries in the region.
The Executive Secretary, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Mohammed Ado, disclosed this to newsmen after the meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Margaret Chan, on the successful containment of the Ebola Virus Disease in the country and the effective stoppage of polio melitis.
He also announced that WHO is set to declare Nigeria as the next country to exit from polio endemic country list having successfully reduced the burden by 95 per cent between 2013 and 2014.
Ado said: “Mr President had interaction with the WHO DG, we discussed the problem of polio melitis and she commended Mr. President for the leadership and effective management that had led to effective near eradication polio melitis in Nigeria and also containing the Ebola Virus outbreak. And Nigeria was well commended because Mr. President demonstrated highest level of leadership and other countries were called upon to emulate the good work of Mr President.
Polio too
Ado, concerning polio melitis also informed the media that: “You will recall that for polio melitis between 2013 and 2014 Nigeria was able to reduce by 95 per cent the burden in the country. Nigeria is tipped today as the next country to exit from polio endemic country list and was again commended by all countries and the leadership of Mr. President was appreciated by WHO and other countries were challenged to emulate Nigeria’s example and efforts.”
Benefiting from Ebola committee
On the new committee on Ebola and how Nigeria can benefit from it, Ado said, “Nigeria’s role in containing the Ebola outbreak in the country was well commended and other countries were asked to emulate us. In fact one key thing that came out of the meeting between Mr. President and WHO DG was for other countries to benefit from Nigeria’s expertise in terms of containing Ebola and Nigeria is going to support other countries in terms of capacity building. In terms of the emergency operation centers that we used, the world saw the efficacy and prompt and serious effort Nigeria expended in handling and containing the Ebola outbreak and making sure its spread in the country did not get out of hand. Because the emergency operation center that we used which is the holding room arrangement really contained the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. So Nigeria will be supporting other countries in terms of capacity building and human resource because already we have about 500 human resource available to assist other countries within the west African sub region.
“So what this means is that public health system in Nigeria is working and working very well under the leadership of minister of health and with the overhead oversight of Mr. president. So lot of good things are happening in Nigeria and is obvious that Nigeria is providing that leadership in the sub-region in terms of containing the Ebola virus,” he said.
Commendable
In July, pandemonium hit Nigeria over the EVD when a Liberian citizen, Patrick Sawyer got into the country from Liberia with Ebola. His visit later became a costly encounter for Nigeria as that led to the panic and later loss of seven lives, including the consultant physician that attended to him. The hospital in Lagos that hosted Sawyer was later branded in the media as Ebola hospital.
But although Sawyer’s visit challenged Nigeria’s ability to handle a crisis, it later showed some good sides of the management of the nation.
Immediately the Sawyer case hit Nigeria with the reality of EVD arrival here and the death, the federal government summoned a meeting where the president, Goodluck Jonathan met with state governors to draw a plan to stop Ebola from spreading. Even with the containment plans, the rumour of Ebola spread was faster than the virus.
But the governments, federal and states left the meeting in Abuja with resolve that looked real to stop Ebola from spreading further.
Their meeting was followed with mandates to mobilize health ministries to step up awareness campaigns, fight rumours and enlighten citizens on the dos and don’ts of Ebola.
A little after the meetings, state governments even started announcing measures to their citizens against the disease.
When the government later announced postponement of resumption of schools all over the nation until the problem was solved, it demonstrated a better attempt to contain the problem. At last, Ebola was reported in three or four states outside Lagos where Sawyer landed. Port Harcourt had a case transferred from Lagos, while Kaduna had one and another in Kwara involving a baby. The other case was in Enugu where a nurse that escaped from the hospital that hosted Sawyer and later brought back to Lagos where she lost the battle later.
The most exciting situation was how the nation managed to stop the spread from Lagos to Abuja, the two cities with the highest contacts with about 30 flights in between them daily.
On the day the Minister for Education met with states commissioners for Education, the outcome was a strategy to encourage them set up sensitization policies in the states to train teachers and school managers on Ebola management and control as a way of getting the schools ready against the killer before the schools would resume.
At the subsequent meetings, the states were to furnish the central government with their progress so far in implementing the strategies.
At the Health Ministry level, the Minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu handled a daily briefing of the nation through the media on the efforts, cases, containment and plans to subdue the killer. The update kept informing the masses on the number of cases, measures in quarantine, deaths, recoveries and facilities in place and how they would assist the citizens.
News followers daily got doses of designated centres in the states for Ebola patients in case there is a reported case.
The media also took up the fight and created awareness jingles as their contributions in enlightening the people on what to do, signs to look out for and ways to save lives by stopping the spread.
Public places
All of a sudden, the airports, hotels, schools, eateries, markets, churches, mosques had Ebola test kits and equipment. The gun-like equipment was common everywhere, as they applied them and tested everyone around.
At the airports, banks and other places, the rate of compliance by the masses was also impressive as a result of the good information they got that the spread would only be checked when everyone was part of it.
Even in Lagos where the case was worst, the government took post recovery measures to announce that it would prosecute and sanction people that discriminated against recovered patients of Ebola as they are certified fit by the hospitals. To prove they were no pariahs, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos hosted the recovered Ebola patients to prove to the people that they were not harmful and should not be thrown out.
After about six weeks of sustained fight, the minister later announced that there were no more cases of Ebola in the country and no new cases were recorded.
The fruition of the concerted effort was the commendation Nigeria got at the UN General Assembly through the WHO that even recommended that Nigeria should extent the same measures to other West African countries still battling with Ebola and possibly lend them experts, equipment and lead the WHO team to the countries to handle the case.
The Executive Secretary, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Mohammed Ado, disclosed this to newsmen after the meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Margaret Chan, on the successful containment of the Ebola Virus Disease in the country and the effective stoppage of polio melitis.
He also announced that WHO is set to declare Nigeria as the next country to exit from polio endemic country list having successfully reduced the burden by 95 per cent between 2013 and 2014.
Ado said: “Mr President had interaction with the WHO DG, we discussed the problem of polio melitis and she commended Mr. President for the leadership and effective management that had led to effective near eradication polio melitis in Nigeria and also containing the Ebola Virus outbreak. And Nigeria was well commended because Mr. President demonstrated highest level of leadership and other countries were called upon to emulate the good work of Mr President.
Polio too
Ado, concerning polio melitis also informed the media that: “You will recall that for polio melitis between 2013 and 2014 Nigeria was able to reduce by 95 per cent the burden in the country. Nigeria is tipped today as the next country to exit from polio endemic country list and was again commended by all countries and the leadership of Mr. President was appreciated by WHO and other countries were challenged to emulate Nigeria’s example and efforts.”
Benefiting from Ebola committee
On the new committee on Ebola and how Nigeria can benefit from it, Ado said, “Nigeria’s role in containing the Ebola outbreak in the country was well commended and other countries were asked to emulate us. In fact one key thing that came out of the meeting between Mr. President and WHO DG was for other countries to benefit from Nigeria’s expertise in terms of containing Ebola and Nigeria is going to support other countries in terms of capacity building. In terms of the emergency operation centers that we used, the world saw the efficacy and prompt and serious effort Nigeria expended in handling and containing the Ebola outbreak and making sure its spread in the country did not get out of hand. Because the emergency operation center that we used which is the holding room arrangement really contained the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. So Nigeria will be supporting other countries in terms of capacity building and human resource because already we have about 500 human resource available to assist other countries within the west African sub region.
“So what this means is that public health system in Nigeria is working and working very well under the leadership of minister of health and with the overhead oversight of Mr. president. So lot of good things are happening in Nigeria and is obvious that Nigeria is providing that leadership in the sub-region in terms of containing the Ebola virus,” he said.
Commendable
In July, pandemonium hit Nigeria over the EVD when a Liberian citizen, Patrick Sawyer got into the country from Liberia with Ebola. His visit later became a costly encounter for Nigeria as that led to the panic and later loss of seven lives, including the consultant physician that attended to him. The hospital in Lagos that hosted Sawyer was later branded in the media as Ebola hospital.
But although Sawyer’s visit challenged Nigeria’s ability to handle a crisis, it later showed some good sides of the management of the nation.
Immediately the Sawyer case hit Nigeria with the reality of EVD arrival here and the death, the federal government summoned a meeting where the president, Goodluck Jonathan met with state governors to draw a plan to stop Ebola from spreading. Even with the containment plans, the rumour of Ebola spread was faster than the virus.
But the governments, federal and states left the meeting in Abuja with resolve that looked real to stop Ebola from spreading further.
Their meeting was followed with mandates to mobilize health ministries to step up awareness campaigns, fight rumours and enlighten citizens on the dos and don’ts of Ebola.
A little after the meetings, state governments even started announcing measures to their citizens against the disease.
When the government later announced postponement of resumption of schools all over the nation until the problem was solved, it demonstrated a better attempt to contain the problem. At last, Ebola was reported in three or four states outside Lagos where Sawyer landed. Port Harcourt had a case transferred from Lagos, while Kaduna had one and another in Kwara involving a baby. The other case was in Enugu where a nurse that escaped from the hospital that hosted Sawyer and later brought back to Lagos where she lost the battle later.
The most exciting situation was how the nation managed to stop the spread from Lagos to Abuja, the two cities with the highest contacts with about 30 flights in between them daily.
On the day the Minister for Education met with states commissioners for Education, the outcome was a strategy to encourage them set up sensitization policies in the states to train teachers and school managers on Ebola management and control as a way of getting the schools ready against the killer before the schools would resume.
At the subsequent meetings, the states were to furnish the central government with their progress so far in implementing the strategies.
At the Health Ministry level, the Minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu handled a daily briefing of the nation through the media on the efforts, cases, containment and plans to subdue the killer. The update kept informing the masses on the number of cases, measures in quarantine, deaths, recoveries and facilities in place and how they would assist the citizens.
News followers daily got doses of designated centres in the states for Ebola patients in case there is a reported case.
The media also took up the fight and created awareness jingles as their contributions in enlightening the people on what to do, signs to look out for and ways to save lives by stopping the spread.
Public places
All of a sudden, the airports, hotels, schools, eateries, markets, churches, mosques had Ebola test kits and equipment. The gun-like equipment was common everywhere, as they applied them and tested everyone around.
At the airports, banks and other places, the rate of compliance by the masses was also impressive as a result of the good information they got that the spread would only be checked when everyone was part of it.
Even in Lagos where the case was worst, the government took post recovery measures to announce that it would prosecute and sanction people that discriminated against recovered patients of Ebola as they are certified fit by the hospitals. To prove they were no pariahs, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos hosted the recovered Ebola patients to prove to the people that they were not harmful and should not be thrown out.
After about six weeks of sustained fight, the minister later announced that there were no more cases of Ebola in the country and no new cases were recorded.
The fruition of the concerted effort was the commendation Nigeria got at the UN General Assembly through the WHO that even recommended that Nigeria should extent the same measures to other West African countries still battling with Ebola and possibly lend them experts, equipment and lead the WHO team to the countries to handle the case.
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