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Tag: Ebola

  • Ebola: Schools resume in Kogi

    Ebola: Schools resume in Kogi

    A mid fears in the wake of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria, pupils in Kogi State have returned to school after about a three-month vacation.

    The government has began distribution of sanitary materials to schools across the 21 local government areas of the state.

    Items distributed include liquid soap, buckets with tap heads, thermometers, and hand gloves.

    The state Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Agnes Okai, told The Nation that the measure formed part of a plan to re-introduce personal hygiene to schools.

    Her words: “We are providing all these, including in the rural areas where tap water is rare. They have motorised borehole and they can fill these buckets and pupils can wash their hands and by so doing the culture of hygiene can return to our schools and colleges.

    “Outside Ebola the plan of the federal government is for the culture of hygiene to return to our schools and colleges. It is our intention that we will continue to monitor. All head teachers and even NGOs have been told to involve school management to carry on, even NGOs, it must not be government alone.”

  • Ebola outbreak hoax at UNIBEN

    Ebola outbreak hoax at UNIBEN

    The rumoured outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) has made the management to step up measures to promote hygiene on the campus. EDDY UWOGHIREN (200-Level Medicine), EZEKIEL EFEOBHOKHAN (300-Level Pharmacy) and SUNNY IBEH report.

    In unconfirmed report of  the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak caused a stir at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) last week. Three students, the report said, tested positive to the disease (EVD) at the school health centre.

    For a moment, there was panic on the campus as students rushed back to their hostel to avoid contact with the ‘victims’.

    Disturbed by the report, parents called from far and near, telling their children to return home. Students, who are fond of exchanging pleasantries through handshakes and hugs, maintained their distance from one another son as not contract the disease.

    The Public Relations Officer of the Students’ Union Government (SUG), Gift Obaseki, had to go round the campus to convince the jittery students that the report was an hoax.

    Dr Raymond Osakwe of the School Health Centre, dismissed the rumour, saying: “No Ebola case in UNIBEN.”

    Following the rumour, the management stepped up measures to prevent the deadly disease by providing hand sanitisers at entrances of the university library, John Harris Library, MTN Library and the extension.

    The management provided drums of water for library users to wash their hand before entering the facilities. CAMPUSLIFE observed some students performing hand washing at the main library. Students praised the proactive efforts by the authorities to make the campus free of diseases.

    Precious Oboh, a student, said: “I came here to see students washing their hands, so I joined them. This is a welcome development as it will help in maintaining hygiene.”

    The Director of Health Services unit, Dr Comfort Enofe, explained the reason for the preventive measures being taken by the institution to promote hygiene among students, saying the measure was to prevent the outbreak of Ebola in the school.

    She said: “We have sent message to all students to report strange sickness at the health center and to also properly cook meats before eating. We sensitise them to avoid eating fruits that are not washed and those partially eaten by birds. We are also encouraging them to stop all unnecessary travelling to areas where the disease has been confirmed.”

    At the entrance to the health center, CAMPUSLIFE observed a medical personnel, checking the temperatures of visitors. Dr Enofe said the move was necessary because a high temperature was a symptom of the EVD.

    “When we find anyone with high temperature, we alert the medical professionals that would attend to the patient to take accurate protective measures in the course of examining, treating and counselling such patient,” she said.

    Dr Enofe added that students and staff going to the health centre can now get appointment 24 hours before their visit. This, she said, is to prevent waste of time in the waiting room

    She said: “Everyone can now call and book appointment with our doctor at their own convenient time within the working days. This is the practice everywhere and we can’t afford to do less.”

    Janet Okoduwa, a student, hailed the initiative, saying it would bring about quick response to health challenges.

    Emmanuel Sunmola, a 200-Level History student, encouraged his colleagues on personal hygiene, saying: “Ebola virus is not what you can just contract anyhow. Students should develop the habit of personal hygiene and stop creating panic on the campus.”

    Meanwhile, the UNIBEN Medical Students Association (UBEMSSA) has joined the campaign against Ebola. The association moved round the campus with posters containing information on how the EVD spread, its symptoms and prevention.

     

  • Ebola: Lagos distributes thermoscans to schools

    Ahead of the October 8 resumption for schools, the Lagos State government, has distributed thermoscans, a scientific instrument used to measure body temperature, as well as 668 Ebola Focal Officers in its public schools.

    Special Adviser to the Governor Babatunde Fashola on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, who made known at a sensitisation and enlightenment seminar for the Ebola Focal Officers, explained that the officers would will be responsible for surveillance and health monitoring of the disease in each school and interface between schools and primary healthcare center if the need to refer pupils arises.

    Governor Fashola had held a meeting with key officers in Lagos schools where the government reversed the earlier Monday resumption to October 8 to allow for adequate distribution of the items across public school in the state.

    Mrs. Adeshina noted that the thermoscan were procured for use of schools to check pupils, especially body temperature which can signal the commencement of fever.

    She added that government also planned to provide water supply with water to schools, which are not connected to the state, stressing that gloves and liquid soaps for hand washing had also been procured to aid personal and environmental hygiene.

    Adeshina noted that the fear about the disease was harmful. He said  only visibly ill or sick patients that could spread the disease via direct contact with the broken skin, mucous membranes and secretions of an infected person or through direct contact with materials and surfaces that have been contaminated by an infected person.

    She said: “Lagosians, please remain calm. There is no reason to panic as your government in partnership with the federal government and development partners is resolved and committed to contain the disease.”

    Noting that the containment of Ebola is a shared responsibility of all citizens, implored the officials to take hygiene  serious and report any suspicious case of the disease to the appropriate quarters or better still, call the Ebola helplines.

    Mrs Adeshina explained that schools had also been provided with guidelines on how to prevent EVD, stressing that one of the goals of the seminar was to enlighten them on what they need to know about Ebola and what should be done on suspicion of the disease.

    Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Omolara Erogbogbo, recalled that the exercise of school teachers, principals and head of schools on the EVD started two earlier ago as part of efforts aimed at preparing schools for resumption.

    She expressed confidence in the teachers at ensuring a healthy and safe learning environment for pupils since teachers are better informed and educated on EVD.

    The seminar and lecture covered  EVD, roles and responsibilities of schools, home and children as well as demonstration of hand washing techniques.

  • Ebola: U.S predicts over 500,000 cases in West Africa

    Ebola: U.S predicts over 500,000 cases in West Africa

    Global experts issued stark new warnings of the scale of West Africa’s Ebola outbreak on Tuesday, with the United States’ government estimating between 550,000 and 1.4 million people might be infected in the region by January.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said its projection was based on data from late August and did not take into account a planned U.S mission to fight the disease, so the upper end of the forecast was unlikely.

    However, it followed research by experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Imperial College, which estimated that 20,000 people risked infection within six weeks — months earlier than previous forecasts, Reuters reports.

    It warned that the disease might become a permanent feature of life in West Africa.

    The worst Ebola outbreak on record has already killed over 2,800 people – more than the combined total of all previous outbreaks. The disease has marched across much of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing dozens of health workers and crippling economies recovering from years of conflict.

    Outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal appear for now to have been contained. But nations across the region fear contagion and, against experts’ advice, have shuttered borders and restricted travel, complicating international efforts to fight the disease.

    “I am confident the most dire projections will not come to pass,” CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden, told reporters.

     

  • Ebola: Bayelsa, NUT disagree on resumption date

    •Kebbi schools shut indefinitely

    The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Bayelsa State chapter, has said its members will not resume until the conditions to prevent the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) were met by the government.

    The umbrella body of teachers said its members must be trained and sensitised on EVD before returning on September 29, as announced by the government.

    The Chairman of the union, Mr. Ogola Brandla, noted that members were still waiting to participate in the training designed to equip them with the knowledge to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.

    He said the training of teachers was the only way to protect schools from EVD, adding that they would remain shut until the training was done.

    Brandla said teachers were stakeholders in the education sector. “The decision was taken because of the concern for the sector’s growth.”

    The Commissioner for Education, Mr. Salo Adikumo, insisted that schools would resume on September 29.

    He said government had trained enough anti-Ebola personnel to be deployed in  schools.

    His words: “We have trained people and have put in place a lot of things to prevent Ebola.

    “Why must it be teachers? The important thing is that people have been trained. It must not be teachers. The people we trained are human beings. We used the Ministry of Health workers to conduct the exercise.”

    Some private schools in Yenagoa, the state capital, defied the directives and resumed on Monday.

    But some parents said they would not release their children until government declared the environment safe.

    One of the parents, who identified himself as Okoro, said: “It is very bad that some schools opened even when the government is cautious. I think they should be sanctioned. They are after profit, forgetting that children’s lives are involved.

    “I will not allow my children to go to school until government announces resumption date, because it must have a reason for saying schools should remain closed.”

    Kebbi State chapter of the NUT directed its members to stay at home until further notice.

    In a communiqué by the Chairman, Mohammed Sanusi Umar and Secretary, Adamu Ayuba Kaltungo, at the end of its meeting at the Teachers House in Birnin-Kebbi, the union said government had not put in place measures to prevent the spread of EVD.

    According to the statement, teachers must be trained to handle a possible epidemic “and preventive gadgets, such as hand gloves, sanitisers, infra-red thermometers, soaps, among others, must be provided in schools.”

  • Ebola: Liberia facing shortage of foreign help – UN

    Ebola: Liberia facing shortage of foreign help – UN

    Liberia, the West African state hardest-hit by the worst Ebola outbreak in history, remains gravely short of foreign health care workers despite repeated pleas for help, a senior United Nations official said on Tuesday.

    Efforts to tackle the Ebola outbreak, now six months old, have been too slow to stop the disease infecting more people than ever before and spreading from its origins in Guinea to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal, killing over 2,800.

    Without scaling up efforts to tackle the deadly haemorrhagic fever, there could be 20,000 cases in West Africa by early November, half of them in Liberia, according to a World Health Organization study published on Tuesday.

    Antonio Vigilante, head of the U.N Development Programme in Liberia, said 40,000 community workers needed to be trained and the country still had far too few foreign experts.

    The opening of a new clinic in Monrovia meant Liberia now had 350-400 Ebola bed spaces but this was still far below the target of 2,000.

    “We have some 50-70 cases per day. Even net of the people that die, it’s very, very difficult to keep adding 30 or 40 beds per day,” Reuters quoted Vigilante as saying on telephone from Monrovia to a U.N news briefing in Geneva.

    “Even if we are at 2,000 beds two or three weeks from now, the cases we’ll have in any single day may be more than that,” he said, and adding new beds is of little use without the experts to manage them.

    There are now some 150 foreign experts in Liberia, provided by Medecins sans Frontieres and U.N. staff, he said.

  • ‘Ebola could strike 20,000 in six weeks’

    ‘Ebola could strike 20,000 in six weeks’

    The Ebola outbreak in West Africa could infect 20,000 people as early as November unless rigorous infection control measures are implemented, and might “rumble on” for years in a holding pattern, researchers said on Tuesday.

    In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, experts from the World Health Organization and Imperial College said that infections will continue climbing exponentially unless patients are isolated, contacts traced and communities enlisted.

    The WHO, in an initial roadmap issued on August 28, predicted that the virus could strike 20,000 people within the next nine months.

    The current death toll is at least 2,811 out of 5,864 cases, the United Nations’ agency said.

    The latest study, marking six months from March 23, when the WHO said it was informed of the Ebola outbreak in southeastern Guinea, reflects projections based on the data from a third wave of the virus in Guinea, Sierra Leone and worst-hit Liberia, Reuters reports.

    “With exponential growth, you’ll see that the case numbers per week go up so that by the second of November, over these three countries our best estimate is over 20,000 cases, confirmed and suspected cases, ” Reuters quoted Dr. Christopher Dye, the WHO director of strategy, and co-author of article, as saying at a briefing.

    Nearly 10,000 of those would be in Liberia, 5,000 in Sierra Leone and nearly 6,000 in Guinea, he said. But those numbers would only come about with no enhanced infection control.

  • Ebola: Teachers in Cross River, Imo, Abia, Benue, Akwa Ibom refuse to resume

    Despite Cross River State government’s directive that schools should be reopened, most schools remained shut yesterday, as teachers insisted that they will not work.

    They said they would not resume without being equipped to manage the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) Mr. Eyo Nsa Itam told The Nation that they were in alignment with the Federal Government’s directive that states, which were ready, should reopen schools.

    According to him, Cross River was not ready.

    The Commissioner for Education, Prof. Offiong Offiong, said schools were ready for reopening.

    When our reporter visited schools, some pupils resumed, but they were asked to go home.

    Pupils in Imo State public schools were sent home yesterday by teachers, who said schools would remain closed pending further directives from the NUT.

    The state chapter of the union said it would join the national body to ensure that Ebola preventive facilities were provided in public schools.

    Speaking with reporters, the state Chairman of the NUT, Dr. Cletus Iwu Okeke, said the state’s branch would abide by the decision of the national body to ensure a safe environment for pupils.

    When The Nation visited Owerri Girls Secondary School, pupils were leaving the premises. They said their teachers asked them to go home.

    The state president of private proprietors, Chris Ineh, said their compliance was based on the health facility provided by the Federal Government.

    The much-expected reopening of private and public schools for the 2014/15 session did not take place yesterday in Abia State, as the state chapter of the NUT said its members would only resume when government provided the equipment to protect them and pupils from EVD.

    Instead of reopening schools, NUT directed its members to attend a meeting on the way forward.

    When our reporter visited School Road Primary School, Ibeku High School and other schools in Umuahia, pupils and teachers were not seen, as the classrooms remained shut.

    At the School Road Primary School, Umuahia, venue of the NUT meeting, the chairman of the local chapter was not present.

    Other union leaders refused to speak to reporters on the outcome of the meeting.

    A teacher, John Idika, said the union was not considering any strike.

    Said he: “Our interest is to draw the attention of the government to the need to provide public schools with Ebola preventive kits, as directed by the governor.”

    At the Ministry of Education where the kits were being distributed to schools, the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Monica Philips and the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Victoria Chigbu, could not speak to reporters, as they were distributing kits, such as thermometers, buckets, sanitisers, dispensing kits and soaps to head teachers.

    Water would be supplied to the schools through an arrangement made by the Education Ministry.

    Public primary and secondary schools in Benue State failed to resume yesterday as directed by the Federal Government.

    It was, however, a different scenario in private schools, as most of the pupils resumed for the new academic session.

    When The Nation visited private schools, pupils were being taught by teachers, while their counterparts in public schools stayed away from classrooms, as they were shut.

    The NUT Chairman, Mr. Godwin Aya, said teachers would resume next month as directed by the Federal Government.

    He urged government to put in place steps to prevent children from contracting EVD.

    Private nursery, primary and secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State resumed classes yesterday, while their public counterparts remained shut.

    The state NUT said last week that it would not resume classes for the new session unless EVD was addressed by the government.

  • Nigeria has contained Ebola, says WHO

    Nigeria has contained Ebola, says WHO

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has hailed Nigeria for containing the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    The deadliest Ebola epidemic ever has now killed 2,793 in West Africa, it said yesterday, adding that Senegal too had basically contained it.

    The UN health agency, which also published the results of the latest meeting of its Ebola emergency committee, said 5,762 people had been infected in five West African countries as of September 18.

    Guinea, where the outbreak began at the start of the year, and neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone by far account for most of the cases and continue to see ballooning numbers.

    Liberia has been especially hard-hit, with 3,022 cases and 1,578 deaths alone.

    At the same time, “the outbreaks in Senegal and Nigeria are pretty much contained”,  WHO said in a statement.

    Senegal has not reported any new cases of the deadly virus since it registered its first and only case on August 29 — a Guinean student who has since recovered.

    Nigeria, where 21 people have been infected, eight of whom have died, has not reported new cases since September 8, WHO pointed out

    The incubation period for Ebola is 21 days and double that time must pass without any new cases arising before a country can be deemed transmission-free.

    The WHO said a meeting of its Ebola emergency committee last week had determined that the outbreak remained a “public health emergency of international concern”.

    The committee had reiterated its opposition to general bans on international travel or trade, although people infected with Ebola or who had had contact with Ebola patients should not be permitted to travel, WHO said.

    Blocking flights to or from affected areas and other travel restrictions only serve to “isolate affected countries, resulting in detrimental economic consequences, and hinder relief and response efforts risking further international spread,” it warned.

    The emergency committee also stressed that in cases where measures like quarantines are deemed necessary, countries must ensure that “they are proportionate and evidence-based, and that accurate information, essential services and commodities, including food and water, are provided to the affected populations.”

    It also insisted that “adequate security measures” should be put in place to ensure the safety and protection of healthcare workers, who face high infection rates and sometimes violence from frustrated and frightened populations.

    Last week, eight members of an Ebola education team said to include local health officials and journalists, were found dead after they were attacked by angry locals in southern Guinea.

    The emergency committee urged the affected countries to ramp up their response to the outbreak and called on all countries to strengthen their preparedness through simulations and personnel training.

  • Ebola: Experts advise Fed Govt on porous borders

    The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has said for the Federal Government to successfully control and eradicate the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), the country’s porous borders must be plugged.

    First National Vice-President of the association, Alhaji Toyosi Raheem told reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, that there should be sufficient provision of equipment and diagnostic reagents/chemicals for the war on Ebola to be successful.

    Alhaji Raheem said: “There should be mandatory personal protective equipment (PPE) and other consumables such as laboratory gowns, gloves, eye shields, head and shoe covers; respirators designed to prevent viral particles, constant running water, liquid detergents, hand sanitisers, constant electricity with backups, adequate waste management procedures/practices and laundry facilities, among others.

    “When these are available in sufficient quantities and quality at various medical laboratories; whether public or private, Ebola Virus Disease will be contained. The era of no money to procure all these mandatory tools in the laboratory should not be allowed to continue in the era of EVD. Safety should never be treated as a political issue but as a mandatory matter because one lost life can never be replaced.”

    The laboratory scientist, who is a presidential candidate of the association, said harmony in the health sector will ensure speedy eradication of EVD.

    “Harmony is required in our various health facilities to enhance workplace and public peace. It is also required to promote effective and efficient healthcare delivery; to achieve the set health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other health targets in Nigeria.

    “Every effort should be made by government to ensure harmony in the health sector. Prevention and diagnosis of EVD is to be pursued aggressively by all the medical laboratory scientists. But adequate budgetary provision should be made for laboratory services to enhance safety of professionals, other health workers and the public,” he said.