[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.
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:
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:
PS: Please share this article. Do not keep it to yourself.
Addendum: Some materials badly required by health officials when dealing with Ebola virus disease patients:
- Gloves-latex, nitrite, industrial type
- Clorox and antibacterial soap
- Disposable thermometers
- Gowns
- Cotton balls
- Hand Sanitizers
- Surgical masks
- Eye Goggles
- Shoe covers
- Anti microbial hand-wash
- Hair covers or caps
- Bio-hazard bags
- Disposable Stethoscope
- Environmental surface wipes
- Respirator masks
- Plastic bins
- Sharp containers
- Chlorine Tablets
- Surgical tapes
- Gauze
PS: Please share this article. Do not keep it to yourself.
Dr. Viban Viban Ngo,
Ph.D
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