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Tag: Ebola virus

  • Our fight against Ebola, others, by U.S.

    The spokesman of the Department of State, Morgan Ortagus, in a briefing in Washington, speaks on the Ebola virus, which has cropped up again in Africa after it was defeated by Nigeria and others. She also speaks on other global issues. Excerpts:

    Ebola and U.S. efforts

    Over the last few days, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green has been traveling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Somalia. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the administrator met with health care workers at an Ebola treatment unit, community and local leaders, and response groups working to stop the spread of the disease.

    U.S. foreign assistance to the Northern Triangle countries

    Next, I have a quick update for you on U.S. foreign assistance to the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. As you know, in March, the President concluded these countries have not effectively prevented illegal migrants from coming to the United States. At the Secretary’s instruction, we continue to implement the President’s direction regarding foreign assistance for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. We completed a review, and previously awarded grants and contracts will continue with current funding. State Department assistance in support of priorities of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security priorities to help the Northern Triangle governments take actions that will protect the U.S. border and counter transnational organized crime will also continue.

    We will not provide new funds for programs in those countries until we are satisfied the Northern Triangle governments are taking concrete actions to reduce the number of illegal migrants coming to the U.S. border. Working with Congress, we will reprogram those funds to other priorities as appropriate. This is consistent with the President’s direction and with the recognition that it is critical that there be sufficient political will in these countries to address the problem at its source. As Secretary Pompeo has said, these nations have the responsibility to take care of the immigration problems in their home country.

    All right. Just before I go into Iran, can I just ask you, on the Northern Triangle aid, can you – do you have dollar amounts for what the total was that was initially suspended and how – and the amount that is going to continue now? And if you don’t, could you get them for us?

    We will get you the exact ones. Some rough estimates – and I’ll make sure to get you the exact dollar figures – is that, excuse me, we will continue to meet our contractual obligations for FY17, and that funding that’s already been programmed is around 400 million. Again, we’ll get you the – the 200 million continues to be paused or in an escrow from ’17.

    And sorry, the 400 million is both the stuff that had been previously awarded and the – there was some stuff that you said will continue?

    Yeah. So there was about – I believe it was 707 was the number of programs in a very thorough and comprehensive review that we did, and of course, we said the – our assistance and support of priority programs from DOJ and Homeland Security will continue. And so we’ll get you the exact figures, but those are rough estimates of where we are with FY17.

    When your ambassador to the IAEA noted that Iran was potentially or possibly in violation of the JCPOA on advanced centrifuges and she called for the IAEA, in particular the European parties to the deal, to urge Iran to stay in compliance. Now today, we have a situation where the Iranians say they’re going to bust through the limits on their low-enriched uranium stockpile, and maybe even start enriching up to 20 percent. Do you see – does this administration see any value in Iran staying within the limits outlined by the JCPOA?

    MS ORTAGUS: So I would say that we are unfortunately not surprised by the Iranian announcement. As we’ve talked quite a bit from this podium, this is a pattern of 40 years of behavior. It’s consistent with how the Iranian regime behaves. They did this when we were in the JCPOA, right? They continued to build their missile program, we relieved sanctions, they took American sailors hostage. We have seen no moderating behavior by this regime, and in fact what we’re seeing here of course over the past week is – constantly threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, a number of activities – not just the two commercial shipping vessels that we discussed this week, but four other commercial ships.

    I think what we’re seeing here is really a challenge not only in the JCPOA, but really a challenge to the international norms on how a country behaves, a challenge to the international norms on freedom of navigation and freedom of the seas. And so we would say to the international community that we should not yield to nuclear extortion by the Iranian regime.

    Just that. Not taking hostages, not malign activity, not things that are not covered in the JCPOA. Does the administration believe there is value in Iran staying – continuing to comply with the JCPOA, which the President called the worst deal ever negotiated?

    Listen, we continue to call on the Iranian regime not to obtain a nuclear weapon, to abide by their commitments to the international community. And I think it’s unfortunate that they’ve made this announcement today. As I said earlier, it doesn’t surprise anybody. I think this is why the President has often said that the JCPOA needs to be replaced with a new and better deal. Iran, as evident by their announcement today but also their pattern of behavior over the past few years, is keen on expanding – or seems to be keen on expanding their nuclear program, and it now wants to exceed these nuclear limits in advance of these so-called sunset clauses.

    Morgan, is the Secretary disappointed with the response from the international community so far? You’ve said you would like to say to the international community they should not yield to nuclear extortion. So has the administration been disappointed by the response, for one thing, for the attacks on – last week, and more broadly on viewing the threat and the way to respond to Iran?

    No, not at all. I mean, in fact, I think that we have seen the international community and our allies step up to condemn this behavior. I mean, this clearly – what we’re seeing in the Strait of Hormuz defies the pattern – the tenets that we all hold dear as it relates to freedom of navigation, freedom of the seas. The Secretary has been working of course incredibly closely within the government with secretary – Acting Secretary Shanahan on multiple times, working on ensuring that we are – excuse me – able to defend our people and our interests. We’re of course working on the diplomatic solution while Secretary Shanahan and the team at DOD is focused on our military options to keep our people, our interests, and our allies safe.

    Over the weekend, as almost every weekend with the Secretary – he’s probably the hardworking – most hardworking person I’ve ever worked for – the Secretary had a number of calls with the NATO secretary-general, with a Chinese politburo member, with a Singaporean foreign minister, a Kuwaiti foreign minister, UK foreign minister, Emirati foreign minister, Republic of Korea foreign minister, Qatari foreign minister. We obviously don’t have readouts from every single call that he has, but we have worked incredibly hard with our allies on this assessment as it relates to Iran’s actions last week in the Gulf of Oman.

    Does the Secretary believe that the U.S. strategy, as he laid out when he set forth these 12 demands – I mean, given the tensions only seem to be escalating, does he believe that the U.S. strategy toward Iran is currently working?

    Our maximum pressure campaign continues, and it will continue to be what we pursue. We think it’s incredibly unfortunate, of course, the Iranian announcement today. But when we – again, when we look and see what’s happened in the region, again, this is – as we always say, I know, 40 years of behavior – but especially over the past few years, when you look at this assessment that the Secretary gave here from this podium, I want to reiterate something that he said, because I think it’s sort of gotten lost in the media coverage. He said our assessment is based on the intelligence, the weapons used, levels of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and of course the fact that no proxy group in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with this high degree of sophistication. So we will continue to work with our allies and work with our international partners who would like to help us deter this Iranian behavior, who would like to help us get them back to the negotiating table, who would like to help us get them to behave like a normal nation. That’s the whole goal here. Our demands are not high. Our demands are that they stop terrorizing the region.

    While there is no new deal between the U.S. and Iran, you ask Iran to abide by the JCPOA even though you left – the U.S. left this deal. When you say you ought to abide to their international commitments, you mean to abide to the JCPOA, which the U.S. left?

    Yeah. We have made it very clear since this President came into office and since the Secretary came here that we will not tolerate a – Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. Full stop. So any actions that they take to get a nuclear weapon will be countered by a maximum pressure campaign by the United States Government that continues to this day. There should be no relieving of sanctions for their malign and unacceptable behavior.

    I know. I finally got the directions. The Secretary last week when he was discussing this, he used the phrase that Iran was “lashing out.” In the calculation when the administration decided a year ago to withdraw from the nuclear agreement, did it anticipate or expect that there would be a greater level of this lashing out as a result of the U.S. withdrawal?

    Well, I think that the United States and the Secretary and this administration in general were well aware of the pattern of behavior from the Iranian regime. Anybody who’s studied them more than a hot minute, who have looked at them for the past 40 years, knows how they will behave. I would love for someone to give me an example of some sort of moderating behavior that the Iranian regime pursued post-JCPOA. I have no evidence of that. I have evidence of them taking U.S. sailors as hostages. I have evidence of the IRGC having millions if not billions of dollars to fund terrorism around the world, to fund Houthis, who we saw hit yet another airport in Saudi Arabia where American civilians go through. All of you just saw that report. There’s been no moderation. They continue to terrorise.

    Last week you said that what Mr. Friedman said was not U.S. policy. U.S. policy towards annexation is very clear.

    I said that our policy on the West Bank hasn’t changed. Yes.

    On the West Bank and Gaza annexation is very clear. But yesterday, the chief negotiator or the envoy, chief envoy, Mr. Jason Greenblatt, said exactly the same thing. I mean, apparently they did not listen to your statement last week or the position, or did not take into consideration the position of this building historically. So do you have any response to him? He said exactly the same thing. He said that he basically supports what Mr. Friedman said.

    I didn’t – I read Jason’s comments and I didn’t take it the way that you just characterized. But I will reiterate that there is no plan for an annexation by Israel of the West Bank that they have presented to us, and nor is it under discussion. So I’m not going to comment on hypotheticals. If and when their government —

    Just to go back to Iran briefly. Have you been speaking to Congress about the oil tanker attacks, and in particular, using that as an argument to get lawmakers to back down on their attempts to block the arms sales to Saudi Arabia? Because they were still quite determined to try after the briefing last week.

    I – that’s an interesting correlation that you just made. I mean, the Secretary, of course, said very publicly, whenever he made this decision to continue the arms sale, which I would reiterate that those arms sales are to many countries in the Middle East, not just Saudi Arabia. We’re talking about Jordan. We’re talking about the United Arab Emirates and some smaller arms sales in there as well. But one of the justifications was, of course, because of the imminent threats from Iran.

    Since I have to go in a few minutes, I believe somebody wanted to ask on North Korea, and I’m going to give them the chance.

    According the Voice of America yesterday, Kim Jong-un said in a secret document the final goal of the North Korea’s nuclear negotiation with United States is the – to strengthen North Koreans’ nuclear power. Therefore, North Korea, Kim Jong-un, is not willing to denuclearization of North Korea. What is your comment?

    We see a lot of media reports like this all the time – whether it’s North Korea or other parts of the world. And we certainly don’t comment and speculate on every report. But since you asked me, President Trump and the Secretary believe that Chairman Kim will fulfill his commitment to denuclearize, and that remains our policy.

    And I’m just wondering what you make of the situation there and if you believe that the Chinese are acting in an appropriate way here.

    It certainly was moving, I think, as a citizen in a democracy, to watch these peaceful protests happen in Hong Kong. And we’re seeing the people there in Hong Kong, of course, demonstrating for their basic rights, for the right to freedom of speech, for freedom of assembly, all of these things which are enshrined into Basic Law.

    And so, of course, as we observe these, we continue to call on the Hong Kong Government to address the concerns of their public, to consult with local and international stakeholders who may be affected by this proposed amendment, even though I know it, of course, has been postponed.

    The Secretary spoke about this a little yesterday on some of the Sunday shows that he was on and said that we’re watching the people of Hong Kong speak about the things that we value. And I think that we have been pretty straightforward and transparent from this podium on our support for these peaceful protestors.

  • Second Ebola patient dies in Uganda

    A second person has died of Ebola in Uganda, just days after the first case was detected in the country, the health ministry said on Thursday.

    The 50-year-old woman who died on Wednesday night was the grandmother of a 5-year-old boy who became the country’s first victim of the highly infectious virus after returning from a trip to Congo, where over 1,000 people had died in the latest outbreak.

    A 3-year-old child was also confirmed to have the disease and is still hospitalised.

    Seven other people suspected of having Ebola are also in an isolation ward near the border with north-east Congo.

    Read Also: Deadly Ebola virus found in bat

    “She passed on yesterday at Bwera health centre but the baby, her grandson, is still alive,’’ health ministry spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona told dpa.

    The government has stepped up health control measures among communities along the Congo border.

    These include urging people to wash their hands with soap, avoid shaking hands or hugging and report people with Ebola-like symptoms.

    Authorities are also telling people to avoid large gatherings in places of worship and at markets, as well as funerals and weddings.

  • Deadly Ebola virus found in bat

    The deadly Ebola virus has been found in a bat in Liberia, researchers and the health ministry said on Thursday.

    National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) director general Tolbert Nyenswah told newsmen in the capital Monrovia that scientists of Liberia’s health ministry and NPHIL detected the Zaire Ebola virus in one bat.

    “To date, all other bats have tested negative. The finding was nonetheless significant, as researchers believe it suggests that bats may be a natural host for Ebola.

    “Researchers believe it was likely that bats in other parts of Africa were also carrying the Ebola virus,’’ Nyenswah said.

    Read Also: 24 patients flee Ebola treatment center

    According to the director general, ongoing studies will examine whether more bats are infected and how bats spread the virus.

    Ebola, a highly infectious disease that causes a fever, often leads to massive internal bleeding and fatalities.

    During the last major Ebola outbreak in 2014, 11,000 people died when the virus spread across the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

  • Expect more Ebola cases in Congo – WHO

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday that it could not be certain that it had identified all people exposed to the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu region.

    Read Also:WHO chief pleads for access to Ebola-affected areas of DRC

    The WHO said more than 500 people have been vaccinated so far against the disease in Congo’s latest outbreak, marked by a total of 78 confirmed and probable cases including 44 deaths.

    Some 1,500 people have been identified as contacts of infected people.

    “We don’t know if we are having all transmission chains identified.

    “We expect to see more cases as a result of earlier infections and infection developing into illness,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a Geneva news conference.

     

  • Ebola: 17 people die in Congo – Officials

    Officials said 17 people have died in an area of northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo where health officials have now confirmed an outbreak of Ebola.

    It is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in the central African nation, whose eastern Ebola river gave the deadly virus its name when it was discovered there in the 1970s, and comes less than a year after its last outbreak which killed eight people.

    “Our country is facing another epidemic of the Ebola virus, which constitutes an international public health emergency,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

    “We still dispose of the well trained human resources that were able to rapidly control previous epidemics,” the ministry said.

    Ebola is believed to be spread over long distances by bats, which can host the virus without dying, as it infects other animals it shares trees with such as monkeys.

    It often spreads to humans via infected bushmeat.

    Before the outbreak was confirmed, local health officials reported 21 patients showing signs of hemorrhagic fever around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the town of Bikoro.

    Seventeen of those later died.

    Medical teams supported by the World Health Organization and medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres were dispatched to the zone on Saturday and took five samples from suspected active cases.

    Two of those samples tested positive for the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, the ministry said.

    “Since notification of the cases on May 3, no deaths have been reported either among the hospitalised cases or the healthcare personnel,” the statement said.

    After Congo’s last Ebola flare-up, authorities there approved the use of a new experimental vaccine but in the end did not deploy it owing to logistical challenges and the relatively minor nature of the outbreak.

    The worst Ebola epidemic in history ended in West Africa just two years ago after killing more than 11,300 people and infected some 28,600 as it rolled through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

    In spite of regular outbreaks every few years, death tolls in Congo have been significantly lower.

    “Our top priority is to get to Bikoro to work alongside the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and partners to reduce the loss of life and suffering related to this new Ebola virus disease outbreak,” said Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General, Emergency Preparedness and Response.

    “Working with partners and responding early and in a coordinated way will be vital to containing this deadly disease.”

    Health experts credit an awareness of the disease among the population and local medical staff’s experience treating for past successes containing its spread.

    Congo’s vast, remote geography also gives it an advantage, as outbreaks are often localised and relatively easy to isolate.

    Ikoko Impenge and Bikoro, however, lie not far from the banks of the Congo River, an essential waterway for transport and commerce.

    Further downstream the river flows past Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa and Brazzaville, capital of neighbouring Congo Republic – two cities with a combined population of over 12 million people.

    Read Also: http://staging.thenationonlineng.net/ebola-outbreak-congo/

  • Ebola: WHO deploys new technology for rapid diagnosis in DRC

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had deployed new technology that allowed for rapid diagnosis of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

    WHO said in a statement that in collaboration with the DRC’s Ministry of Health and partners, it had rapidly set up an intensified field alert and response system resulting in early identification of suspect cases detected in the affected zone.

    The DRC is using these new tools, as well as classic ones, to respond to an ongoing outbreak of the virus in a very remote area of the north east of the country, it said.

    The world health body said scientists now quickly gathered samples, shipped them to Kinshasa and tested them at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB).

    “One of the technologies being used to detect Ebola in DRC is GeneXpert, which was primarily developed to detect cases of tuberculosis, but has been adapted to enable rapid testing of many pathogens – HIV, malaria, STIs, and Ebola.

    “At the INRB laboratory in Kinshasa – with support from USAID, WHO, Canada, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the Emerging and Dangerous Pathogens Laboratory Network (EDPLN) – technicians can use GeneXpert to test for the Zaire strain of Ebola in just one hour.

    “For samples that are negative, further testing is then undertaken to check for other strains of Ebola, other viral haemorrhagic fevers, or other diseases.

    “Other tests developed during the West African outbreak are also being deployed, such as OraQuick – a rapid diagnostic test, which has been developed with the support of the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and GOARN.

    “In the field, OraQuick can test blood or saliva samples for Ebola in just half an hour,” the UN health agency said.

    Even if many or all suspect cases now being tested are negative, it remains vital to actively follow contacts of all confirmed, probable, suspect cases for 21 days, and then to continue enhanced surveillance for an additional 21-day period, it said.

    “Any period of calm is an opportunity to continue building and reinforcing local and country preparedness and response capacities and ensuring rapid investigation teams are ready in case the virus should resurface”.

    This is the eighth outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the DRC since the disease was discovered in the 1970s in the country, WHO said.

    “Health authorities in this country are recognised throughout the African region and the world as experts in responding to outbreaks of this disease,” it said.

    Since the major outbreak in West Africa in 2014, an increasing number of diagnostic tools have become available to perform rapid initial testing of samples, the UN agency said.

  • WHO declares Guinea free of Ebola Virus

    WHO declares Guinea free of Ebola Virus

    The Ebola outbreak in Guinea is over, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday, the second time the West African nation has been declared free of the virus.

    It has been six weeks since the last confirmed Ebola patient tested negative for the virus, according to the WHO report.

    The source of infection for the latest outbreak had likely been exposure to infected bodily fluid from an Ebola survivor.

    After having been declared free of Ebola in December, Guinea reported seven confirmed and three probable infections in March and April.

    The country now enters a 90-day period of heightened surveillance to ensure that any new cases are identified before they can spread.

    “We must continue to be vigilant to ensure that we rapidly detect and stop any new cases that may occur,” said WHO Guinea representative Abou Bekr Gaye.

    In neighbouring Liberia, three new Ebola cases were reported in early April, with the last patient testing negative on April 28.

    If no new cases occur, Liberia will be declared free of Ebola by June 9.

    The WHO nevertheless lifted its global health alert on Ebola at the end of March, meaning the virus no longer constitutes a global health emergency.

    The disease has killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the outbreak began in December 2013.

     

  • Ebola virus: Schools’ resumption date shaky

    Ebola virus: Schools’ resumption date shaky

    Doubts persisted yesterday over the September 22 resumption of primary and secondary schools nationwide as a result of the Ebola outbreak.

    The House of Representatives Committee on Education has slated a meeting with Minister of Education Ibrahim Shekarau for him to convince Nigerians why schools should resume this month after doctors have cautioned against it.

    The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) last week said the resumption date should be shifted.

    But the government insisted yesterday that the date is in order because Nigeria is virtually Ebola-free.

    Minister of Health Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu yesterday said delaying schools, resumption till December or early next year based on Ebola Virus Disease is “irrational fear”.

    He spoke to reporters at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja.

    According to him, the decision to fix September 22 was based on expert advice.

    Insisting that it is safe for schools to reopen, he said there was nobody under treatment anywhere in the country for Ebola virus disease at the moment. He added that there was no community transmission of the disease in Nigeria, like in other countries.

    Stressing that Nigeria is making progress against the disease, Chukwu said: “The minister of education, after meeting with the commissioners for education from the 36 states and FCT, decided when public schools should open, which they told us is  September 22. In taking that decision, they used information that was given by the Federal Ministry of Health to the fact there is actually no reason now, with the expert information we have at hand why our schools cannot resume earlier than the original date of Oct. 13.

    “I think people should just allow us to do the work we have been doing very professionally. It was based on advice given by the Ministry of Health that the Minister of Education took the original decision that it was going to be in October and nobody quarrelled with the minister. Now the minister, based on expert advice, has come back to say ‘well, for us, if you are asking us, we don’t have any reason to stop that’.

    “We are very serious, we should be sober about this situation in Nigeria; we must be extremely careful. We have allowed a football match to go on and we screened every fan in Calabar; we screened every player and everybody, even the governor and the wife were screened. We are dead serious. We are not perfect, but I know we are trying to encourage everybody in Nigeria to collaborate.”

    He added: “We don’t need to close the world, we don’t need to say nobody should go to work in Nigeria. There is absolutely no reason for that.

    “First, unlike in other countries, there is no community transmission of the disease in Nigeria; not one yet. But we have taken precautions; what we are doing, we may as well have said everybody should just be moving about, but we are taking precautions. There is no scientific basis for school resumption to be postponed.

    On the NMA’s position, Chukwu said: “The only information I had from NMA is that someone informed me that he had been appointed to head a committee being set up by the NMA on EVD. And I replied that as a government and as Federal Ministry of Health, we look forward to collaboration. Now, collaboration doesn’t mean going to media. With all due respect,  collaboration means if they have information, they should give it to the Federal Ministry of Health or the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control.

    Giving an update on EVD,  the minister said since the disease was imported into Nigeria in July, the country has had 19 confirmed cases; 15 in Lagos and four in Port Harcourt.

    Those treated and discharged, he said, are 10 with the last two – the sister and wife of the Port Harcourt doctor – who died from the disease.

    The total deaths from the disease in Nigeria is seven including five in Lagos and two in Port Harcourt.

    According to Chukwu, 490 persons are still under surveillance in Port Harcourt while 16 persons have completed the 21 days surveillance.

    In Lagos State, those on surveillance are 16 persons as 338 persons have so far completed the 21 days observation period.

    Chukwu said the female student suspected of having EVD at the Obafemi Awolowo University had been quarantined. The case, he said, is being investigated.

    Rivers State Commissioner for Health Dr. Sampson Parker said yesterday in Port Harcourt that the number of contacts with  Dr. Ikechukwu Enemuo, under surveillance had risen to 510.

    Parker added that there is no new positive case in the state. According to him, the 18 month-old baby quarantined last Sunday tested negative on the first round; and that his second test result was still being awaited, and hence still in quarantine. He is a primary contact of the late Enemuo.

     “The 18 month-old infant that is the only patient we have at the treatment centre now tested negative in the first test. We are still awaiting the second test before he could be discharged. This is necessary for us not to make mistakes because he is a minor.

     ”Despite these successes we have recorded in Nigeria, so many Patrick Sawyers will be looking for ways to move over to Nigeria for solutions to their problems. That is why I think Nigeria and the West African sub-region should move down there to save the situation. It is time for us to move very quickly; that is the only way we can maintain our successes here.

     ”We are talking about the successes already recorded and any moment from now, the wife of Dr. Iyke Enemuo will be discharged from the treatment centre in Lagos, because she is doing very well. So, she will be discharged soon.

    “Although the number of contacts under surveillance in the state has increased to 510, there is currently no patient that has tested positive to Ebola at the quarantine /treatment centre.”

    The House of Representatives Committee on Education yesterday said it had invited the Minister and NMA to a meeting over the resumption date for schools.

    Chairman of the House Committee on Education Aminu Suleiman told reporters in Lagos that the committee would meet with the minister and NMA officials on Monday to discuss the resumption date for public and private schools in the country.

    “It is true that government has reviewed the position earlier taken on the resumption; government may have some reasons that are not available to us,” Suleiman said, adding: “But since the Minister of Health has initially justified the reason for the review, the legislature has decided to abide by that position.

    “Now, a superior, more professionally position has been taken by those who are supposed to drive the project in the first place.

    “The NMA advised that the review of the date will not be in the best interest of the country, healthwise.”

    The lawmaker said as representatives of the people, the House decided to invite the executive through the minister and the NMA, “which we have done.

  • A TAN hypocrisy

    A TAN hypocrisy

    The president should call the group to order for double standards and flouting our laws

    They are known all over the country as the president’s foot soldiers. The presidency would openly confess to know nothing about them. In fact, in the light of the slow lynching of the Ebola virus, a directive emanated from the chamber of the highest office of the land that no campaigns should hold in favour or in the name of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Yet it is obeyed in the negative. In Ibadan, a crowd gathered in which a festive atmosphere emphasised the hypocrisy of the project. The President’s chief of staff, Brigadier-General Jones Oladeinde Arogbofa, secretary to the government of the federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, and a few other top fliers of the Jonathan administration, including the agriculture minister, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, showed up. Were they defying the president’s order or they wanted to demonstrate their love in the breach?

    The organisers are called the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, TAN, and they are seen as the successors of the peacock Neighbour to Neighbour that underlined the 2011 campaigns. There is no doubt that for a decent society a lot is wrong with these campaigns, one of the most obscene being the one held about a week ago in the Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt.

    First, the president on whose behalf or dubious honour this campaign is conducted has not uttered a word of restraint, if not condemnation for this so-called open defiance of his order not to undertake campaigns in the light of the Ebola tragedies and the open rampages of the Boko Haram sect in Borno State. It pays no honour or tribute to the integrity of a leader where he says one thing and his aides do another, especially when the something is a campaign that serves his private and selfish aim.

    If the president was truthful, he should have restrained them after the first campaign. That is granting that it was a sort of house ‘coup’ for the boss. But it took on another dimension in another festivity in Port Harcourt. This is a city where panic overtook with an Ebola eruption of suspected cases of infected citizens. This same presidency that asked Nigerians to eschew gatherings to forestall the spread of Ebola infections inspired a big rally where contact of such potential contagion was possible. This was, to say the least, insensitive not only of the presidency but also all the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts that attended.

    The other sin was that the high rollers of the Jonathan administration could not distinguish the high office from its partisan entanglements. In Ibadan, minister Adesina danced with gusto, but his position is not as lofty as that of finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who also was unmistakable in the front row of the celebrators of Jonathan in Port Harcourt. She is also signposted in this administration as the coordinating minister of the economy. In the 2012 Democratic Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, that picked President Barack Obama for his second term, the treasury secretary Tim Geithner was absent. By tradition, he was not expected to be there because only one treasury secretary has ever attended it in the history of the party conventions in the United States. Hilary Clinton was absent because she was secretary of state and the statutes forbade her to show any overt or subtle partisanship.  The same applied to the positions of attorney general and secretary of defence. These positions are too sensitive to be sullied by partisanship. Yet Okonjo-Iweala would cavort with full PDP gear.

    The TAN group also peddled fraud in order to boost its profile. It claimed to have amassed signatures of millions of Nigerians who endorsed Jonathan. Apart from announcing that over 8,000 groups have lined up behind President Jonathan, it regionalised its endorsers. From the southeast, it claimed to have secured 1.6 million persons, in the south-south 4.15 and in the southwest 1.8 million. These statistics have been exposed as fraudulent and signatures garnered from several Nigerians seeking employment. This is cynical and irresponsible. The numbers, on the other hand, are an indictment of the failures of the Jonathan administration. It cannot give jobs but it can turn the numbers of the jobless into boosters for his campaigns.

    What is most unacceptable about this group is that it is carrying out these rallies against the electoral laws of the land. The campaigns have not been opened by the statute books, so the least area of campaigns should be the president himself. This is impunity. We have seen campaigns months past on television screens comparing the president to some of the world’s great leaders. This laugh that is laughing at itself reflects an imbecility in high places.

    Some families are hurting from the spread of Ebola. In the north, insecurity lurks every home even as the Boko Haram sect is turning our military into a laughing stock, besting them as they beat retreat. A smaller nation that should cry to us for help has done better in fighting the militants than our own soldiers.

    Those are the issues of transformation, and not the partisan obsession of TAN. When the time for campaign comes, TAN can go full throttle.

  • Profiting from Ebola Virus Disease

    Profiting from Ebola Virus Disease

    As the nation battles to curtail the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), Nigerians are more hygiene conscious, a development that has increased the demand for hand sanitisers. TONIA ‘DIYAN reports. 

    •Stores record high sale of sanitisers, market women more enlightened

    In marketing parlance, the fear factor or “F” factor, is one of several factors that influence shoppers’ decisions. This factor, though hardly given a thought, now tops shoppers’ list.  No thanks to the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    Indeed, since the first discovery of the EVD in Lagos last month, the “F” factor has played up on shoppers’ list, leading to the high demand for hand sanitisers. The ripple effect of this is that prices of the once unknown product has hit the rooftops. This follows the recommendations of the World Health organisation (WHO), Ministry of Health and other concerned bodies, on the efficacy of sanitisers in preventing the deadly disease.

    The Ebola virus is primarily transmitted through contact with body fluids of infected persons, their skins and mucous membranes being the main routes of entry.

    A statement by an online store, Kaymu, said the demand for hand sanitiser has increased by 130 per cent since the virus struck.  Sales of hand washes and lotions have equally increased significantly in supermarket and departmental stores across the Lagos metropolis.

    Ifeanyi Abraham of Konga online store lent credence to this when he told The Nation that since the coming of the EVD, the online store has recorded a significant  hike in sales of sanitary products on its portal, Konga.com.  At some point, Abraham noted, the online store ran out of sanitisers and other sanitary products unexpectedly, and had to quickly re-stock.

    “The demand for sanitary products has risen greatly since the outbreak of the Ebola disease. Our hand sanitiser sale has risen to about 200 per cent since the outbreak was first reported in Nigeria. We have customers, who buy in bulk as awareness of the EVD increases daily,” he said.

    Also, Jumia’s public relations officer, Tomiwa Oladele, confirmed that the outfit has recorded an 80 per cent increase in demand and sales of sanitisers since the death of the late Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who ferried the EVD to Nigeria. “We have seen an increased purchase of the item in bulk, which indicates that people are buying and keeping it at home. We have sold over 5, 000 sanitisers in less than one month and we are still counting,” she said. And with a rising demand and the need to satisfy its customers, Oladele said the online store has had to create a section to have all sanitary products in one location for accessibility to customers.

    The said demand for sanitisers has also followed the law of demand and supply. Retailers of the product have seized the moment to significantly increase the price. For instance, an average size santiser, which used to sell for N200 before the EVD saga now sells for between N1, 000 and N1, 500, representing about 800 per cent increase. Oladele attributed the hike to the inability of producers to meet the demand for the product.

    The high demand has also led to sub-standard or unknown brands flooding the market. The unprecedented rise in demand, it was gathered, has encouraged some retailers  to introduce new, but substandard brands into the market as substitutes for much sought after brands, which are presumably expensive. Before the EVD outbreak, sanitary products accounted for a little percentage of the health category market sales, but it is now high on the demand chart for several weeks running.

    Interestingly, the EVD has brought with it a good side- promotion of basic hygiene to prevent the transmission of not just the diseases, but other germs and bacteria related diseases. This is by observing simple habit of washing hands with soap and water, hand-wash liquids and sanitisers. People now see the importance of washing their hands and using sanitisers as necessary after a visit to toilets or touching a dirty object.

    A visit to some major markets in the Lagos metropolis showed that shoppers and market women have formed new habits. Some now wear hand gloves to markets as some bankers now do when attending to their customers. Some do wear nose masks when counting money to shield them from respiratory penetration.

    Forming the ‘new fad’, market women now make bowls of water and soap handy for regular use after each transaction. Some also add salt into the water- a reasoning based on the believed efficacy of salt. Besides, fruit sellers now wash their commodities in salty water before displaying them and advise their consumers to do same at home before eating the fruits.

    The Palms Shopping Mall’s public relations officer, Precious Eweka, in Lekki,   explained that contract staff, cleaners and security are being advised on the deadly virus and how to keep safe.  The mall has also provided awareness messages on all electronic boards within the mall, in the toilets and the car park about the preventive measures to be taken, while hand sanitisers have been placed within the mall upon arrival.

    Shoprite’s George Ukwunna said hand sanitisers have been placed at strategic places inside the store. “We have hand sanitisers on our counters and entrance for shoppers. There are first aid boxes, in case there are minor injuries and safety point for emergency cases,” he explained.

    Marketing Manager, Ikeja City mall, Eniola Ositelu, also said the mall is putting in place some preventive measures to curb the spread of the disease.  He said the mall’s management distributed audio CDs at the mall to enlighten tenants and shoppers about the virus. “We have complemented that with circulating detailed information on the virus,” he said, adding: “There is provision for hand sanitisers in strategic places within the mall and it is expected to arrive before the end of the week.

    He continued: “Contractors have been dully intimated about the virus and are currently putting into place measures to ensure that the mall and its environs are safe for shoppers. Preventative measures have also been placed on electronic boards within the mall. We will also use our media platforms to inform shoppers and members of the public about the Ebola virus. Our mall is safe for shoppers and it remains the choice destination for shopping, leisure and entertainment.”

    At  local market such as Mushin and Ketu, market leaders said they have been told to wash their hands before and after attending to customers. “The orientation given to us is that our traders must wash their hands after collecting money from customers and we have made provisions for that. We have clinic around us where we are advised to visit,”a market leader said.