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Tag: Ebola

  • Liberian court suspends election campaign over Ebola

    Liberian court suspends election campaign over Ebola

    Liberia’s Supreme Court on Friday suspended campaigning for next month’s senate election while it considers a petition warning that electioneering risks spreading the Ebola outbreak, the information minister said.

    A group including some former government officials and political party representatives filed the petition earlier this week for the December 16 vote to be delayed until next year when the outbreak will possibly be over, Reuters reports.

    Liberia, the nation hardest hit by the worst Ebola epidemic on record, has seen over 3,000 of its citizens killed by the disease. A total of 5,689 people had died through November 23, nearly all in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

    The disease has slowed in recent weeks in Liberia, however, raising hopes that the outbreak there may be nearing an end.

    “The Justice in Chambers Philip Z. Banks urged the National Elections Commission to inform all political parties to halt all activities associated with the election,” Information Minister Lewis Brown told Reuters.

    Brown said Banks would hold a hearing on the petition on December 2, at which time he would decide whether it warranted examination by the full court or should be dismissed.

    A senior elections commission official confirmed that body had also been informed of the court’s decision.

    The election has already been delayed once. By law, it should have been held in October, but that was at the height of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and it was pushed back.

  • Ebola fears slow rice shipments

    The fear of Ebola has slowed rice shipments from Asia to Africa with shipping crews either refusing to travel to affected regions or demanding higher freight charges. This has aggravated food crisis in one of the most malnourished parts of the world.

    The difficulties in shipments are compounding worries about food supplies as many African farmers have abandoned crop fields in the wake of the disease. Schools offering meal programmes have also shut down, worsening widespread food shortages and hunger.

    “The cost of rice has increased by nearly a third since the disease spread throughout Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone with many ships unwilling to dock at those country’s ports,” Shenggen Fan, director-general of the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute told The Wall Street Journal.

    “If this situation continues, we fear a lot of people will suffer from malnutrition,” he said.

    According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, (FAO), 24 per cent of the population in Africa south of the Sahara is undernourished, with the recent crisis exacerbating a shortage of food staples.

    “I export rice to Nigeria and I know that it’s getting more difficult to find a cargo ship,” said Vichai Sriprasert, head of Thai rice exporter, Riceland International. Before the outbreak, Thai rice exports to Africa had been picking up.

    “The shipowners tend to have no problem, but they told us that captains and crew refused to go. They fear that they would be infected with Ebola when they land at the port and have contacts with the local people there. So that’s a problem,” Mr Sriprasert said.

    Crew members aboard a freighter docked in the port of Liberian capital Monrovia on a scalding afternoon recently donned cotton masks and surgical gloves before allowing dockworkers to come aboard and unload thousands of tons of rice.

     

  • Ebola: Govt warns against frozen chickens’ smuggling

    Ebola: Govt warns against frozen chickens’ smuggling

    The Federal Government has warned smugglers  of frozen chicken to desist from the act as it could bring back the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country.

    A statement by the Federal Department of Animal Production and Husbandry Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abuja, regretted that despite the ban on the importation of poultry and poultry products, frozen chickens have continued to find its way into local market through land border.

    The US Academic Decathlon Agricultural Information Network was quoted to have said 90 per cent of frozen chicken in Nigeria come in through the Republic of Benin and other West African countries.

    It blamed the illicit trade for the decline in the consumption of local chicken, jobs and decrease of national income generated from the poultry sub-sector.

    The statement rgretted that the sale of frozen chicken had become a means of livelihood for some Nigerians, lamenting that its continued consumption pose great health risk.

    It said factors such as the lenght of time the chickens are frozen before getting to the country makes it risky for consumption, according to nutritionist.

    It added that the quality was usually very low due to the break in cold chain during several hours of land journey in the country through illegal routes and absence of quality certification or standard of instruments used.

    It warned that besides the above factors, the recent outbreak of EVD in some West African countries had shown that the handling of these products could transmit the disease.

    According to the statement, people handling these frozen chickens were not known and there are no checks on the storage facility and the mode of transportation used.

    The statement also claimed that the deaths caused by EVD and burial places may not have been properly reported in some of these West African countries.

    It warned that Nigerians should not assume that all affected West African countries had achieved 100 per cent tracking and control of EVD as Nigeria has scored.

  • UN to miss December 1 Ebola target

    UN to miss December 1 Ebola target

    The United Nations Ebola Emergency Response Mission will not fully meet its December 1 target for containing the virus due to escalating numbers of cases in Sierra Leone, Anthony Banbury, the head of UNMEER, said on Monday.

    The mission set the goal in September of having 70 percent of Ebola patients under treatment and 70 percent of victims safely buried. That target will be achieved in some areas, Banbury told Reuters, citing progress in Liberia.

    “We are going to exceed the Dec ember 1 targets in some areas. But we are almost certainly going to fall short in others. In both those cases, we will adjust to what the circumstances are on the ground,” he said in an interview.

    The death toll in the worst Ebola epidemic on record has risen to 5,459 out of 15,351 cases identified in eight countries by November 18, the World Health Organization said on Friday. Almost all those cases are in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

    Banbury said the areas of greatest concern are in rural parts of Sierra Leone as well as the city of Makeni in the centre of the country and Port Loko in the northwest and the capital Freetown.

    To combat rural cases, health workers need to deploy rapid response units complete with specialists and equipment that can be flown by helicopter to remote villages at the first sign of the disease’s spread, he said.

    UNMEER was set up to provide coordination, policy and logistics rather than to treat patients. It needs more resources to halt Ebola as quickly as possible but the emphasis now is on allocating existing resources in the smartest way, he said.

  • We can end Ebola outbreak in 2015 – Ban

    We can end Ebola outbreak in 2015 – Ban

    The deadly Ebola outbreak can be ended “by the middle of next year” if the world speeds up its response, United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has said.

    But he warned that although the rate of new cases was slowing in parts of West Africa, Mali – where six people have died – was now of deep concern.

    And the head of the UN Ebola mission, Anthony Banbury, said the world was “far away” from beating the virus.

    The BBC reports that Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have been worst hit by the Ebola outbreak.

    More than 5,400 people have died in those three countries, along with a handful of others in Nigeria, Mali, Spain and the United States.

    In a separate development, Liberian police said all the country’s beaches would be closed from 29 November until Liberia was declared free of Ebola.

    In a statement, the police said anyone using the beach in violation of the order would be prosecuted.

    Speaking at a meeting in Washington with officials from the World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Ban said: “If we continue to accelerate our response, we can contain and end the outbreak by the middle of next year.”

    Meanwhile, the death toll in the Ebola epidemic has risen to 5,459 out of 15,351 cases identified in eight countries by the end of November 18, the WHO said on Friday.

    Reuters says the figures showed an increase of 39 recorded deaths and 106 new cases since those issued on Wednesday.

    “Transmission remains intense in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,” the WHO said, referring to the hardest-hit countries.

  • WHO declares Congo Ebola outbreak ‘over’

    The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Friday that an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo was over after no people showed symptoms for two incubation periods since the last case.

    The outbreak, the seventh in the former Zaire since the virus was identified there in 1976, was separate from the one spreading in West Africa, where more than 5,400 people have died, Reuters reports.

    There were 49 deaths out of 66 people infected in the remote northwestern Equateur province during the three-month outbreak, Congolese authorities said last week.

    A WHO spokesman confirmed the figures.

    Two maximum incubation periods of 21 days each must pass with no new cases being detected before the United Nations health agency can declare that an outbreak is finished.

    “Having reached that 42-day mark, the Democratic Republic of Congo is now considered free of Ebola transmission,” the WHO said in a statement.

    “WHO commends the Democratic Republic of Congo’s strong leadership and effective coordination of the response that included rapidly mobilising an expert response team to Jeera County, identifying and monitoring contacts and organizing safe burials,” the WHO said.

  • Ebola: Bowl of contradictions

    Ebola: Bowl of contradictions

    The hypothesized setting is a remote village in a remote part of the world. Mr Tuba, a 93 year old man with a known history of terminal cancer sadly succumbs to the disease and dies. He had been intermittently ill for three years. Luckily, a doctor had been to see him and his family, extended and nuclear, informing them that his was a terminal case. The doctor suggests that efforts be made where possible for the last periods of his life to be spent in relative ease and comfort.

    In his old age, he has had no support and has had to do everything all by himself. Even his children, one of whom is a local businessman and has been successful trading in local fabrics, are of no help to him. Occasionally they pop in to say hello to him. When they do, he is often lying in his own faeces, in decrepit conditions. They see this but turn a blind eye. They know of his suffering but have not deemed it fit to do anything. The old man is living his final moments in abject conditions, not fitting for any human. The problem is everyone could see it but have decided to do nothing to help.

    Mr Tuba finally passes on. Before long, hundreds of sympathizers had gathered and are crying and singing in sorrowful tunes. Huge donations started pouring in for a befitting burial. You wouldn’t believe this was the same old man rejected by all including his own. In the end, millions of cash had been spent.

    The above metaphor strikes home the current Ebola situation and the response of the affected countries and the international community. Since the outbreak of Ebola, the response of the world has been that of shock and dismay. Without a doubt, the catastrophe that Ebola has visited on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has been dire and when you witness it directly, you cannot help but be sad and desolate. However there are many questions which if asked will open a Pandora’s Box of thought-provoking albeit conflicting ripostes.

    Did we not know that the health systems of these countries were in dire shape? Did we expect these countries to have been able to deal with an outbreak of such proportions? Or did we just bury our heads in the sand hoping against hope that this will never happen.

    The Ebola outbreak makes grim discoveries and has revealed a cankerworm of decay in our society. It has revealed that many of the hospitals and clinics in the affected countries and beyond are nothing but glorified infection transmission centres with not even the most basic protective equipment or mechanisms for health workers. Is it acceptable that countries with oodles of natural resources and so-called established democracies with years of experience as recipients of foreign aid in cash and expertise cannot provide even the most basic of commodities nor manage the basic health needs of their population?

    Now is not the time for giving account but when this situation dissipates, then will come the time for sober reflection. It will be the time for Africa to come together and ask itself the most salient questions. How come years of donor funds and expertise have not made African countries self-sufficient to the point of managing the basic health needs of their people?

    What has happened here? The international community has provided millions and millions in aid over many decades to strengthen the health systems of the recipient countries. How has these monies not translated into basic equipment in clinics and hospitals? How come they have not translated into enduring mechanisms of infection prevention and control? How come they have not contributed to local expertise on some of the most common elements in managing public health emergencies?

    Foreign aid is needed, for sure; especially for developing even if potentially endowed countries. There is nothing wrong with the more developed and prosperous countries lending a hand and helping other countries. The point is that the help rendered has to be not just in terms of cash but also importantly to help these countries stand on their feet. Unfortunately, the concept and notion of foreign aid has become a parody of sometimes deliberate misconception and outright misinterpretation. It is sad that some forms of foreign aid have led to a substitution of in-country potential, means and resources. A country, after many years of aid, that cannot on its own initiate the most basic of public health protocols cannot be said to be learning useful lessons on foreign aid as a tool for rebirth, revival, regeneration, restoration and recovery.

    Since the outbreak began, I have barely heard or seen anyone or organisation lay the responsibility where it truly should lie. The duty of providing security and ensuring the well-being of the population is a critical criterion of sovereignty. The international community needs to begin to say it as it is. That is the only way lessons can be learnt. Even Nigeria’s success with curbing the outbreak needs to be put in its proper context. No one is mentioning the reasonable permutation that the health care system in Nigeria is in as dire a state as many others in the sub-region and will also have likely been overwhelmed in the same way as Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have given the same scenarios. The truth is that part of the reasons why the virus was defeated in Nigeria is because of the almost tailor-made way it was introduced into the country. Had Nigeria shared borders with any of the affected countries and Ebola introduced through any of the remote villages like it happened in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, there is every chance that the devastation Ebola wrought will be just as severe as we have had in those three countries now. The country’s health system may not have been able to deal with an outbreak of such proportions. Such is the state of the health system in many a country.

    The international community has a critical role to play in mentoring weaker countries to prosperity. Part of this mentorship has to be done through forthright and sometimes blunt and plain speaking; saying it as it is in all ramifications. And not just in health. This forthright assessment and evaluation should include the current haphazard practice and culture of democracy in many countries today. A good electoral system begets good governance which begets accountability. Accountability begets increased availability of resources which then begets good health systems, good roads, and good education. All of these start with free and fair elections. We have seen over the years how elections in many parts of the world have failed to inspire confidence. How can a government serve its people when it has not been properly elected? Unfortunately, we see a situation where even the champions of democracy turn a blind eye to this. Corruption at the ballot box leads to corruption in government. When corruption thrives, there are fewer resources left for the populace to enjoy good infrastructure and there is less available for good roads or well-equipped hospitals. It will be interesting for researchers to come up with methodologies on exploring probable associations between rigged elections on the one hand and good governance, accountability and availability of infrastructure and then the link of all of these to maternal deaths, infant deaths or even road traffic accidents due to bad roads etc. There has to be a link!

    Ebola has come; it will go and may likely come again. The time will come for a non-partisan and an all-inclusive discussion about what went wrong and how this has been allowed to happen. When this happens, it is my hope that responsibilities will be laid where they should and that valuable lessons would have been learnt to mitigate the impact of this terrible tragedy and to limit the damage of any future recurrence of the Ebola Virus Disease in our midst.

     

    • Dr Ameyan is a medical doctor working in Sierra Leone
  • Seventh Sierra Leone doctor killed by Ebola

    Seventh Sierra Leone doctor killed by Ebola

    A Sierra Leonean doctor died of Ebola on Tuesday, a medical source said, bringing to seven the number of doctors killed by the virus savaging the nation’s healthcare system.

    Still recovering from years of conflict, Sierra Leone has seen at least 128 of its health personnel infected by Ebola as staff working in general wards and special treatment centres have been exposed to the disease, Reuters says.

    “Dr. Michael Kargbo died this afternoon,” a senior health worker at the Hastings Treatment Center in the outskirts of Freetown, told Reuters.

    However, there was no official comment on the matter.

    It was not clear how Kargbo, a 64-year-old dermatologist working at the Magburaka Government Hospital, was infected with Ebola as he was not serving in a frontline Ebola treatment unit.

    All seven Sierra Leonean doctors who have contracted Ebola have died.

    Kargbo’s death comes a day after Dr. Martin Salia died in the United States after being evacuated from Sierra Leone for treatment.

    The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed over 5,000 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Mali is facing a new wave of cases but Senegal and Nigeria have successfully contained outbreaks.

    Having been the worst affected nation, Liberia has seen the number of Ebola cases ease off and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has set a goal having no new cases by December 25.

    However, United Nations’ officials say the disease is advancing rapidly in Sierra Leone, where there is a lack of treatment centres.

  • Ebola: Anxiety as 150 stranded Nigerian teachers ‘escape’ from Sierra Leone, Liberia, others

    Ebola: Anxiety as 150 stranded Nigerian teachers ‘escape’ from Sierra Leone, Liberia, others

    ABOUT 150 stranded Nigerian teachers in Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire and Liberia have reportedly started escaping into Nigeria, following the refusal of the Federal Government to evacuate them because of the Ebola scourge.

    But those who escaped from Ebola infected towns and villages, have not gone for any Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) test in any hospital.

    The development has created panic following the success achieved at containing the virus in the country. Investigation confirmed that the 150 teachers were sent to Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire, Liberia, and other countries in West Africa under the Nigerian Technical Aids Corps Programme, which is coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    The affected teachers are specialists in Mathematics, English and the sciences, and they are expected to spend two years in their countries of deployment.

    According to a source,  most of the participants in the 2012-2014 set had not been able to return on account of the Ebola scourge since mid-October, when their programme ended.

    The source added that the stranded teachers were scheduled to return to Nigeria between October 15 and 17.

    The highly-placed source said: “Today, no airlines ply the Freetown-Lagos routes and the teachers and science specialists, under the Federal Government programme, seem abandoned at the Ebola-ridden countries.

    “These teachers had sent several distress signals to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for special flight shuttles to evacuate them, but their pleas fell on deaf ears”.

    The source added: “Some of these teachers have resorted to self-help by escaping from the Ebola infested communities through Ghana, Tunisia, and Morocco to return to Nigeria.

    “Those who came back just reunited with their relations without  undergoing any medical test or being  quarantined. You can see how we can be flippant in this country. We seem to have been carried away by the clean bill of health given to us by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    “But a sizeable number of the teachers are still stranded in their host countries. The government should save this nation from a fresh Ebola infection by evacuating these TAC teachers”.

    One of the participants in the programme, who spoke desperately on the telephone, said: “Some of our colleagues travelled to Nigeria about nine months ago. Then Ebola broke out and started killing people. They are stranded in Nigeria. They still have their property here. Some of them have money in banks.

    “We are also stranded too. We cannot move out. As I speak to you, I can’t go to the market. I just manage to send people to buy food stuff for me in the market to cook.

    “In fairness to Nigerian embassy officials, they talk to us once in a while; they advised us to keep a low profile, be careful where we go and be healthy. But they keep on telling us that they are still expecting orders from the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Nigeria”.

    The participant added: “One of the embassy officials told us that now that Dr. Pius Olasanmi is now the head of the Technical Aids Corps Directorate, we will be transported back to Nigeria. But we have not heard or seen anything concrete. We are still waiting.

    “But we are now orphans in West African countries; stranded, isolated and lonely. We don t know whether it is a curse to serve your country. But that is what we are feeling now. We feel abandoned by Nigeria, our country. We feel abandoned by President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “Please help us tell President Jonathan to send planes to West African countries to evacuate us. We are tired of living in these Ebola countries.

    “Some of us live in areas that are two, five or eight hours to the capitals of these countries.

    “One of our colleagues called from Sierra Leone to say that markets are just reopening and that schools closed since August till further notice.

    “An ambassador in one of the countries invited some of our colleagues and told us that we might be evacuated before November 20. But we are not sure how this is going to work out. It appears as if they want to give us money, so we come to Nigeria by road, with all the risk of contracting Ebola along the way on our trip home”.

    “Why can’t President Jonathan direct that a plane be chartered to stop at all the capitals to transport us and then Nigerian medical workers can do further medical test on us before we re-enter the country?

    “Are our lives worthless that government cannot charter a plane to transport us from all West African countries?” the participant queried

  • Ebola: Minister urges vigilance

    Ebola: Minister urges vigilance

    Supervising Minister of Health Dr. Haliru Alhassan has urged stakeholders in the health sector, especially the striking medical workers, to remain wakeful, if Nigeria must avoid the return of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    Alhassan, who noted that the approaching end-of-year celebrations would occasion the homecoming of Nigerians, especially from the Ebola-infested countries, noted: “Ebola is just a flight away. We must place general interests above any personal or group interests now.

    “The borders must remain adequately policed. Medical workers under the Joint Health Staff Union (JOHESU) must see reason to return to work now in the overall interest of the country”.

    The minster spoke in Ido-Ekiti, Ido/Osi Local Government Area, Ekiti State, at the weekend, at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Ido-Ekiti and Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), for the FMC’s upgrade to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido.

    Others at the event were ABUAD’s founder Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) and other senior officials of the institution, including the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido, Dr. Lawrence Ayodele Majekodunmi, the CMD of the Ekiti State University, Dr. Kolawole Ogundipe, and traditional rulers.

    The sealing of the agreement followed structural upgrades undertook in the teaching hospital by Aare Afe at a cost of N2.5 billion, in line with the requirements by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and the National Universities Commission (NUC) for the running of a tertiary health institution.

    Alhassan added: “During this time, health workers would have to be on guard at the airports to screen those that will be coming in and to perform other routine work. We cannot afford to be caught unaware, as witnessed in the past.

     “Though, we have no single case of Ebola now in Nigeria as we have been declared Ebola-free, this is the time Nigeria must be very vigilant to ensure that the virus is not brought back to our country, just because of minor issues we can handle with understanding.

    “The Federal Government, through our ministry, has been meeting with the workers and we can settle the issues internally through dialogue, even while they resume for work”.

    According to him, the MOU with ABUAD was the first of its kind in the health sector in Nigeria.

    The minister noted: “ABUAD has blazed the trail ever since the discussion on this collaboration started. It became like a clarion call to other universities, and our ministry has been bombarded with similar requests.

    “Unfortunately, ABUAD has set a standard, which may be a herculean task for most of the private universities to meet”.

    Aare Babalola, who praised  the minister for weathering the odds to make it to the event, explained that the achievement was the outcome of the Federal Government’s belief in Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements to drive and achieve desirable progress in education.

    His words: “We are the ones, who must improve the lots of our people. God will not come down to do it. Prayer and hard work are synonymous: you work hard and get result; you don’t, no result. Industry, determination, hard work, integrity were the investments we made to achieve what we have here today.

    “This is PPP at its best. FMC has cooperated with a private university to achieve the result. No government can alone fund education. It is impossible. If any government says it can do it alone, that government is lying. Don’t let us deceive ourselves. In Japan, there are 2,000 varsities and of these, there are 1,000 private ones”.

    The CMD hailed President Goodluck Jonathan for welcoming the PPP in the health sector, adding that the development would reposition the sector for improved service delivery..

    He explained that the hospital has the best residency training programmes, which he maintained reflected in the presentation of eight members of the institution for a residency examination in which they all passed.

    Attributing the achievement to hard work and commitment by the hospital’s workers since the institution was established in 1999, Majekodunmi said: “Today, this 300-bedded hospital can boast 65 full-time consultants in the fields of medical specialties and has been accredited in eight medical departments by both national and West African Postgraduate Medical Colleges to train resident doctors”.

    He attributed the achievement to Aare Babalola, “who refused to be discouraged by brickwall he met on the way towards achieving the great feat”.