VIBANFLAGBOOKSCANADA: 2014-08-17

[Key words: Ebola Virus disease, HIV/AIDS, Africa, spread, halting, pandemic, customs, hygiene, traits, symptoms, media, WHO, history, cultural clashes, emigration, border closures, suggested remedies]

The world belongs to all of us no matter wherever we are and it should be our responsibility to make it a healthier place for all and sundry, now and in the future. With the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic in West Africa, it should be our concern. We should not be apathetic in the belief that it would never affect us living thousands of miles away. Together we could move mountains and even stamp it out as never before. We have done it in the past and still could do even better today. We could volunteer, contribute financially to NGOs or Governments affected or just by sensitizing others as we are doing in this treatise. Remember that being isolated or living in distant lands does no guarantee our protection from it as was a long time ago when there was little intercontinental human interaction. It will take less than ten hours with our modern transport network and the whole world is agitated because of our being uninterested over what is happening in some remote corners of the world.

My simple bill board for stopping the Ebola virus spread campaign

There are others who are being fooled that Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a hoax or some invention of Westerners. This is malicious and unsubstantiated information we are familiar with that must be dismissed outright by all level-headed persons. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported today (Wednesday, August-20-2014) of 1400 having been killed in Western Africa. Some unconfirmed sources talk of 2473 affected persons. Liberia accounts for some 450 deaths where some persons still believe that it is a hoax. On false dissemination of information concerning pandemic diseases, was that not the same doctrine that was preached by false prophets in Southern, Eastern and West Africa when HIV/AIDS was still at its inchoate stage in the world? The perpetrators misled the gullible public and the pandemic disease got out of all proportion. Many are languishing because of that misinformation. The doctrine is where in doubt leave it out as good journalese does.

We still recalled the President Thabo Mvuyewa Mbeki of South Africa Republic (1999-2008) even bought it and that undue hesitating caused the death of many in the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Uganda earlier on. Many naïve persons lent their ears to this unscientific doctrine and before long it became pandemic. The leak that could have been patched to save a mighty dam from bursting out was ignored and before long the dam gave way and the deluge caused untold mayhem, irreparable damages. Those who adhered to this doctrine perished in droves in the morning of their lives. Some person stated that if one was a real person, one should face the brunt of it and did not survive. Hamlets, homesteads, and even villages and townships lost vibrant economic men and women. When you visit those ghost settlements you see but older folks or children looking after children, a sad scene as one after a war where men have all been killed and buried.

This false doctrine was fanned by bogus medicine men, herbalists who are often considered as savants in some communities who sprung up and purported to have discovered cures or supported the false doctrine that all were European chicaneries to cut down the burgeoning African population and replace it with theirs as had been their tradition. The very traditional medicine men had been a wedge towards westernization of many in the developing world as the infamous Boko Haram. They had not stopped poisoning the hearts of many and befuddling them for their financial and other gains. The interpretation by others was that it was whites' boldfaced racism. As prophets, many listened to them and were victimized. Many preached that the only cure was to have dalliance with infants or virgins and we had unheard-of rapes of infants in Southern Africa and the spread of the diseases (STDs) as never before. We wonder if the authorities learned lessons from these allegations.

The remaining folk rather than stay when their off spring had perished decided to leave their settlements as was the case in gone by days when pandemic diseases as small pox, tuberculosis, influenza or Spanish flu struck some African communities. The interpretation in those days was that the gods had not accepted them where they were settled or that the soil was spoiled. The only remedy was to emigrate or migrate. Tribes thus left for fertile and healthier climes in distant countries abandoning all they had worked for since time immemorial. This was one factor that triggered emigration and migration in the past. Vestiges of this attitude still lingers in some primitive communities. It is sad that some gullible persons in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and even Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa still believe in this doctrine of diseases brought into their communities by Westerners. It does not tally as it benefits neither Africans nor Westerners but helps in slowing down the fragile economic progress of these states.

In the aforementioned countries, there are some men of God, pastors who are of the opinion that Ebola as AIDS/HIV related diseases are a curse from God for the civil wars that had plagued those states in Africa. If they know that God loves all, He cannot punish by inflicting punishment in the form of pandemic diseases to wipe out those He truly loves. Remember he said that He came to Earth for sinners and He equally loves them. Also falling on the list is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where Ebola first showed its ugly face in 1975, in Uganda in 2012, Ivory Coast, and Gabon. It might not have been the first time in the D.R.C. As far back as the 1930s a plague was reported along the banks of the tributary of the River Congo, called River Ebola from which stems the name EBOLA, then known as the Belgian Congo or Congo Leopoldville. A priest had come and the villagers who had evacuated a village because all the subjects were dying as flies were glad to offer him a hut in that village for his accommodation. The reason was everyone in the village had died from a mysterious virus and the villagers who did not entertain the White man's intrusion (they did not like forced labor of the Whites Belgians and hash punishment dished out when the right quarters of rubber and tusks were not collected by the locals and handed to the Belgian colons gratis) believed that this Priest of the Sacred Heart Mission was to perish in a matter of days. Surprisingly he survived to write his report.

My above interpretation cited on my blog article 'Plants' Intelligence' was from the geographical perspective which was as the consequences of destruction of the rain-forest and putting off balance of its natural ecosystem. The rampant killing of wild animals for food made easier now with the availability of modern fire power that was never in those communities in the past may also contribute. However, the present case started from Guinea Conakry before being taken to Liberia and Sierra Leone. If Guinea Conakry had known what the Congolese who were used to it were doing to stamp it out, it could have been contained. In the Congo (DRC), it had been known by the locals that Ebola patients were not to be touched and that in the event of their dying, their bodies were buried on the spot and their huts and belongings were summarily burnt. Those traditional measures help and have been helping but other countries had not had a clue as what to do. In the case of Guinea Conakry where it started, it is conjectured that a hunter might have brought in a dead primate from his hunting field that was not well prepared by those who consumed it. The virus then got to man who could not handle it as bats or the primates. Therefore, should all the bats and primates be eliminated to ensure that there is never such a thing in the future? What was done with the dreaded small pox by the World Health Organisation (WHO)?

The initial hosts of Ebola virus disease are thought of to be bats that fed on the blood of primates and in the process transmit the deadly virus. It is also conjectured that it is transmitted from primates to primates by mosquitoes or through their bodily fluids. How does man get it?

The primates and bats even including the vampire bats are caught and eaten by man. If not properly prepared, the virus is then passed onto man whose system cannot handle it as the bat the primary incubator. Furthermore, the virus that had animals as its host upon the destruction of their hosts had no other option but to look for an alternative and man is the next best host. How can this cycle be solved? In some communities where primates are not slaughtered for 'bush meat' and soup preparation as in Zimbabwe, Mozambique... cases of this had never been reported. The communities believe that primates are their relatives and dare not be eaten.

Other pastors or local missionaries attribute the spread of this hemorrhagic fever to the predicaments and atrocities of men’s inability to forgive each other, raping of women, lynching of children during internecine civil wars, using them as child soldiers, coveting of common minerals, the natural gifts of God by the use of arms that were supposed to be shared equally among their inhabitants. If this allegation could be true then most of Africa are still awaiting their turn!

From my personal perspective, all these theories as to their causes and courses by men of God are intangible and we have to be scientific. Time is against us and there is no room for speculations. Why? One, people know that they could live with people who are HIV/AIDS infected and be scotch free from them and their related diseases. For example, the saying in some communities is that ‘you could die from having dalliance but no one has ever died from its abstention.’ That is complete sexual abstinence. Another is that if partners are completely faithful to their spouses or sex partners and those partners are in return faithful to them there would not be sexually transmitted diseases (STDS)in their communities. Many ensure that they stick to this by letting themselves be scanned before marriages or cohabiting. The orders and prevention guides that are being sensitized in all assemblies in third world countries highlighting that there are no bodily fluids exchanged if we are to stop the spread of Ebola virus:

· No kissing whereby bodily fluid could be exchanged,

· No exchange of saliva or sputum by eating or drinking from common eating utensils or spiting in the public. in most African societies, it is believed to be the accepted hospitality if all members or the family eat from a common dish with their hands. The exchange of saliva is a certain thing under this circumstance and diseases are bound to be spread. Furthermore, the cleanliness of hands where there are often shortages of water or clean water is questioned.

· No sharing of utensils

· No sharing of needles

· No breastfeeding by Ebola patients whatever the circumstances,

· No exchange of blood, blood transfusion,

· No exchange or touching of faeces,

· No exchange of sweats,

· No exchange of semen,

· No engaging in sexual acts likely to endanger lives or leading to exchange of bodily fluids.

In brief no contact with secretion of the patient with Ebola virus or AIDS/HIV as the case may be. Then the point is most of the patients are not aware that they are sick unless there are manifestations and the only way to know initially is to be clinically tested. Do the impoverished communities have the necessary scientific facilities for testing. We will examine this in our next article.

The moment many got to know of this and followed it rigidly, there was a slowdown in the spread of AIDS/HIV related diseases. Some resolved to abstinence, wearing of condoms were imperative or sticking to one partner.

My poster for dedicated health officials in the fields. This could be translated into French, Portuguese and Arabic, the common languages in Western Africa.

A BRIEF HISTORY: The knowledge that diseases could be transmitted by contact had long been known by man for long to the extent that in some communities shaking of hands or touching of parts of the bodies was not allowed particularly of those of strangers. Having said this, it took so long and even hitherto for some Africans to believe in the existence of viruses or germs. To many, sicknesses were caused by your enemies through witchcraft and you could be cured by mending fences with your enemies, paying the witch doctor to give you a counteracting portion, gri-gris to protect you or iron out your grievances by some other ways. Europeans fell into this trap too until viruses were discovered and we thank scientists like Louis Pasteur of France.

There was a time if Europeans came to Africa for leisure or businesses, the greeting of their stakeholders were only twice. The first was when they arrived and the last was when they were saying adieu to their hosts, which was leaving the country after the end of their duties. In the colonial days, natives were supposed to give way when they were passing, genuflect and even remove their hats or caps as a sign of respect. There was no question of shaking hands. Many locals who were naïve over Western cultures concluded that that the White-man was snobbish or racist. It was because in most African societies one greeted and shock hands each time one meet somebody along the way throughout the day. The fact that travelling is still by foot make this possible unlike in the West and other communities where motorized vehicles have literally taken over and men rarely have such close contacts unless in churches, bazaars, theaters, shopping centers or stadia. Even then, one greeted those who were close to one and not anyone in the crowd.

The case of a White man not greeting Africans was cultural clash. In the West for most of the time, friends rarely shock hands after they had got to know each other unless they were away or where returning to their original base. Another time when one was being greeted with the shaking of the hands was when one was being congratulated on having struck an attitude, that is, did something extraordinarily wonderful in his society and was being awarded. Then in the case of a different culture where one greeted each time one meets someone, it was hard to get familiar with that sort of culture.

One realized that many Africans had bad hygienic manner, putting of fingers in the nostrils, blowing the nostrils with bare hands and many more. Others had no toilets or toilet rolls taken for granted in the West and if toilets were used hands were not necessarily washed with soap and clean water. The safest way to mingle in such a society was not to shake hands no matter the consequences. In those days, there were no bottled waters and expatriates were even advised to drink beer or boil water before drinking. Many drank their teas and survived. Then, if you were a business person, you might loss customers because of your apathy was misinterpreted as racism, an aspect many Africans do not take lightly when in contact with white persons. Meanwhile to you it was for hygienic reasons. You believed that your health came first and there was no question of philandering with it so as to have a good name in the society where your life could be in jeopardy.

There are isolated cases where other Africans were not allowed to shake hands with whoever came across them. This is still common with the cases of chief-priests, grandees, lords, and kings of a good number of tribes. In some tribal set ups in say the Grassfields of the Cameroons, ‘thou shall not shake hands of the king, supreme or paramount chiefs or chief priests or queens.’ There are bitter feelings engendered when this role is broken by some government officials of some countries who neglect or do not want to respect tribal norms. Apart from that, chiefs who cross the line for financial emoluments from governments are sanctioned in ways we need not discuss here by tribal regulators. When the young Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and the Commonwealth visited Lagos in 1956, the King of Nsoland in British Southern Cameroons would not shake hands with Her Majesty as it contradicted the tradition of his kingdom for their kings to shake hands with women. He entered his Land Rover and headed home from Lagos, a long way from home. If one ever shocked the king’s hand it was considered as undermining his authority and the defaulter could be punished by death or sold into slavery. In some cases, ‘thou shall not call the personal name of the king or chief.’ If you did that you dethroned the king. The only time a king’s name was called was when he died of naturally causes.

Let us not digress. By the king not shaking hands with anybody no matter their caliber, he was not likely to catch any of the diseases that were transmitted through human contacts. You will observe that if the Queen of UK and Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth of Nations were greeting patrons, she wore gloves, although for fashion reasons, in a way, she was hygienically protected. For the local dignitaries, they, in a way lived longer than their subjects. This equally implied to the case of his royal majesty’s queen or queens in some African tribes. They dare not have coitus with any other person but the king. They did not shake hands too. If there were infringement of this bylaw, they could be eliminated or sold into slavery in days prior to westernization of their communities. The adulterer that is the person who had dalliance with the queen (woman of the palace) was eliminated by the regulators of the society or exiled. This theme is explicated in my old work Shadows of Fire for those who have patience to read it between the lines. The protagonist fell in love with the queen before being given to the king in marriage and that was felony. It sounds barbaric but it still happens in some societies, not only in Africa.

Most of us still extant recall the bitter feelings among some royalties when Princess Diana Spencer left Prince Charles the heir to the Crown Throne for the son of an Arab guru’s Doti al-Fayed. That was the biggest gamble of the century. However, in our case, it was a matter of life or death and the subject rather is killed than the ruler of the kingdom who was supposed to hold the kingdom together. He was a religious leader and even called the Sun King, for he was the sun without which the kingdom was in darkness. He was all powerful as we heard of the case of one of the Zulu kings who tested the obedience of his soldiers in Kwa Zulu (Zululand) before the arrival of Europeans. He ordered 2000 of them to march strength into the India Ocean and they did it all without questioning his order and drowned. How many of us could obey the Queen of England or listen to Her Majesty’s orders transmitted by Governor General of Canada? There are still many who would do that as if a third World War were to start and orders were given by the Queen, many would die for her. They had done so for the British Royalties during the last two world wars and many are still prepared to give their lives for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II if need arises. So the cases of African sovereigns are not idiosyncratic.

The crucial question is how could this Spartan obedience help in the halting of the spread of Ebola and also AIDS/HIV related diseases? Talking to a group of Africans, a year ago, one of them told me that only very stupid persons got AIDS/HIV. He meant the less intelligent who would not obey the authorities, regulations or adhere to their basic hygienic principles being recommended. In the case of Ebola and AIDS/HIV mentioned above, there is basic hygiene if strictly followed people could not be put in harms’ way:

1. It is a known fact that Ebola comes from eating meat. The question posed must people eat meat to get their protein particularly when not well prepared or stored after preparation? If the animals eat grass or other animals to survive, why must it be necessary that man should eat meat to survive? People have lived for long by only eating vegetables and cereals or other root crops, why could all not revert to cereals and vegetable and leave meat completely if that is the only remedy for their not being affected by Ebola? The thing is as clear. Locals do not have enough fuel to prepare their meat and often they eat some raw. Also where prepared over firewood, they do not even have refrigerators to store the remaining food. Flies that had landed on contaminated raw meat with Ebola virus could and still land on cooked (bush) meat that is not well stored. The end result is getting the diseases from next door, our primates to the healthy body, voila!

2. Basic Hygiene: How many wash their hands before they eat and after they have eaten? How many stoically want to eat with their hands and share from one dish as a way of socializing as their parents did in the past thereby spreading the virus and many preventable diseases? Many do not have the right or clean restaurants you see in Western countries. In most beer parlors food being sold is prepared at home and transported in huge flasks in battered taxis shared by all Toms, Dicks and Harries. The food does not stay hot all day long and gets cold and that is an invitation for bacteria and other problems space does not allow us to discuss here. Where they have sufficient fuel, they may not have clean water for cooking or washing dishes and if the dish washer is ill, or any of the patrons is ill, all other clients are likely to be ill. So where is the remedy?

3. We read of stupid cases in Liberia where the isolation wards in which Ebola patients were housed were ransacked by bandits who have ignore warming of the spread of Ebola and claimed that it was a Western ruse to cheat Africans. They stole blankets, buckets, mattresses, bed sheets and many more already used by living and dead Ebola victims. Therefore how do we help those poor fellows? In an ideal case the mattresses and all other bedding would have been incinerated. How could thieves helped in the distribution of Ebola virus inadvertently and that was cause for concern among the once war ravaged Liberia that was striving to recover.

4. Thou shall not shake hands with the victims or with anybody no matter how close or dear they were to you or their sufferings. Let it be known that by not touching a patient because one is not qualified, does not mean that one is not concerned. It should be trumped out loudly that Ebola virus disease knows no borders, brothers, sisters, relatives or enemies, religion, gender, age or color of a person. The virus wants hosts at all cost and man provides the best option in the absence of bats, monkeys and other animals in the forest or wilderness in the case of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). We have adumbrated this point above.

5. Solution? We heard the other day that there were some Parisians who would not entertain rats that are infesting the beautiful streets of Paris being killed or poisoned as being an infringement on their animal rights. Funny as rats caused bubonic plague that killed millions in Europe in the 1720s. The chief carriers were fleas from rats as was the case with Black Death in 1348. [The Australian farmers will tell you what it means to fight rats in the farms. Africans and Indians will tell you how much havoc and cost they have to pay to fight against rats and mice]. So pandemic diseases are not new and we attribute many to the poor hygiene of man particularly after he had focused his attention on wars as the case of countries outlined in the Western and Central Africa. For man not to have learned from those incidents go to substantiate our African’s friends saying that ‘only a stupid man dies form Aids/HIV related diseases.’ Who told those lovers of rats in Paris that rats of today do not carry fleas that could trigger another bubonic plague? Ebola is just the tip of the iceberg. Other diseases are still in the horizon that could come to tell us that Ebola was a child’s play. Is there a long term solution? If bats are the sole incubators of Ebola virus, should it be appropriate that all bats be eliminated? Then it will sanction the increase of mosquitoes. We take bats flying around at dusk for granted but they sweep the air of billions of mosquitoes that kill man more than Ebola. More patients have died from malaria than Ebola since it became pandemic in West Africa but we do not even have statistics as it is not mass killing that spread the way Ebola virus does. How do we go about it?

6. The funeral tradition might have to be altered. There is what is known as the wake-keeping where the deceased is kept and people congregate to cry over it all night long, engorging and washing it down with alcohol. When maddened or having Dutch courage many would touch the dead body, or kiss it as their way of respect for the family of the deceased. They do not know what on earth killed him or her and that is why funeral celebrations are cardinal distribution points in some untutored communities in Africa. The medical knowledge of many is mediocre or totally absent and the only option is to change the burial tradition and call off wake-keeping all together. Let the dead even be buried immediately by well protected specialists. Funeral halls got to be established and life insurances promoted or subsidized by governments where possible. They exit in some big African cities but are rare and far-between in bucolic areas where literally thousands come together to pay their last respect. Let funeral celebration not be like weddings for merriment and excessive eating and socializing. Again let specialists do the job.

7. . Some patients have been stigmatized and shunned by the society to the extent that when quarantined as the case of Monrovia, Liberia, they escape and mingle with the healthy people so as not to feel isolated. In Brazil of the past there were lepers’ colonies as there are still in many countries where normal citizens did not mix with patients. It does not mean that such patients are being ostracized deliberately. For those who disobey the health authorities and might even have been helped, they help in the distribution of the diseases. It should be trumpeted out using all available media that the sick should seek consultation and as a way of saving themselves and others. The authorities should protect them and if recovered, they could be housed at different addresses where they would not be disdained. There should be no shame about it, as lucky quarantined patients may have the experimental drugs, ZMAPP and other treatments that may make them survive Ebola. There are persons in Uganda and Kenya, East Africa and even the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in central Africa who survived Ebola where their bodily fluids were replenished. The US Dr. Brantly and his partner survived and there is a glimmer of hope.

8. The escape from quarantines should be dissuaded and if one is apprehended they should be protected by medics using moral persuasion. Force or intimidation should not be used. There is no question of being in denial as this flesh eating virus is fast in its manifestation.

How do you know that you have Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)? There are simple signs that could indicate that you have contacted it:

You could be vomiting not only ordinary liquid but blood
Bleeding
Blood in faeces
Have stomach pains
Rashes on your body
Red eyes
Others could have simple sore throat
Having no appetite
Fever
General body aches,
Diarrhea
Headache
Shortness in breathe
Extreme fatigue
Some of these symptoms may mimic those of malaria or flu if one happens to be in those affected zones. There are many others we do not have technical facilities or leverage to inform you here. The best thing to do is to seek the help of health authorities in your country. Do not try to hide it as if you deliberately contracted it.

Should you have any of these symptoms, be advised to rush to the right authorities. Do not wait to have it blossomed before you get panicky. Do not be afraid that by being quarantined it means immediate catastrophe. You rashes or fever could be a simply cold. The best option is to be tested and ascertained before being discharged. Again if quarantined, do not jump into conclusions that it is the end. Many have survived and many will and some years in the history of man, it would be looked upon as we do malaria when there was no known cure in the 1880s and contacting it meant a sure death for individuals not being in malaria’s zones of the world.

Finally, this basic message should not be hoarded but should be made available to all using all media available not only in West Africa but around the world. With our modern interconnection, thanks to the aviation industry, this could be in developed nations the next day. It knows not borders and blocking them is just a short term solution that may not work with the porous African borders that divided consanguineous communities in Africa that are not respecters of borders. Smart phone providers may allocate some units for these messages to be broadcast to all citizens. There should be a hotline for people to phone. The authorities should make this free. It is a matter of life-and-death. Radio station, Internets, Extranet, TV stations and particularly bill posting [as the author’s alluded to above] at strategic highways and locations may be made as the disposal of the authorities concerned to sensitize people of the dangers of Ebola virus. Often places of worships and market places are ideal in most African states for the dissemination of information of this nature. If there are football or soccer matches, this could be put on the electronic bill boards in stadia. The CNN, TV5, CTV, Al-geciras TV, BBC and Deutsch Welle (DV) that are beamed freely to Africa should also play their role in educating the masses. The world belongs to all of us no matter wherever we are and it should be our responsibility to make it a healthier place for all and sundry. It should not be ignored that it is an exclusively African problem and all it needs it one patient to set foot in Paris, London, New York, Cairo, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Mumbai, Johannesburg and the picture is changed. Once more, true borders could be closed but those in Africa are porous. Even the built ones as the one between Gaza Strip and Israel have recently been indicated to be superficial. Tunnels could be dug to criss-cross frontiers, and enemies could even fire viruses across them as weapons of mass destruction.

Addendum: Some materials badly required by health officials when dealing with Ebola virus disease patients: