How Nigeria can prevent the next Ebola pandemic

Forty-two days after Ebola epidemic ravaged parts of Nigeria in 2014 with 19 cases that led to 10 deaths, the World Health Organisation declared Nigeria free in October of the same year. As the disease roars back to life in Congo, Nigeria seems to have abandoned all the precautions it took four years ago.

During the epidemic, Nigeria saw the influx of diverse products like hand-washing soaps, gloves, health personnel protective equipment, hand-held infrared thermometers, among others, to help check the virus but patronage of these products has since declined.

 As the Ebola virus makes a return again to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which has recorded more than 46 cases, including 25 deaths, although only two incidents have so far been confirmed as Ebola, there is need for caution again.

Nigeria needs to be more proactive in preventing the next Ebola epidemic. During the 2014 outbreak, critics cited medical negligence, reverting to old unsanitary habits by many Nigerians and lack of readiness on the part of the health officials as factors that could lead to a possible resurgence.

 Analysts say that Nigeria that health officials should apply the lessons learnt and key success factors of the past should be applied in other to prepare the country against another outbreak.

Ebola Virus Disease is a rare disease that can lead to death mostly affecting human and non-human primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees). It is caused by an infection with one of five known Ebola virus species, four of which can cause disease in human.

 “Effective surveillance is clearly important, containment, general precautions measure will minimise risk of transmission of the viral disease coming into the county” said Oladoyin Odubanjo chair, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN), Lagos Chapter.

“All we need to do is to practise more universal care precautions at all times generally. People need to practice more hygiene, which is very important and the environment needs to be better”

“We have to be very careful with contact between animals and humans, even the pets we keep at home” Odubanjo said.

History has it that the worst Ebola epidemic ever 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 December 2013, after a two-year-old boy died from Ebola in a rural village in Guinea, the virus spread across three West African countries, reaching Nigeria, Spain, the US and the UK.

“With all the documents, all key success factors of how Nigeria was able to indicate each of the cases after Mr Sawyer was identified, the country should learn from that and make sure it does not happen again, so rather than been reactive each time, we have to be more responsive and make sure we are prepared when it comes again,” said Clare Omatseye, president Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN).

 Omatseye said, Ebola is a big crisis for West Africa countries and Nigeria was at the forefront of Ebola crisis so many years back. “We have a lot of learning lessons from the past outbreak in the country and one of it was the fact that private public partnership playing important role, collaboration is very important.

According to Omatseye, the way forward is sustained efforts on protective actions including monitoring the borders checked, hand washing, emergency response systems, and quarantine facilities in the state of readiness.

“I think Lagos State and the Federal Government is a great collaborative effort at the time of the outbreak in Nigeria, that commendable need to continue rather than just because there is an outbreak they should be constant meeting that needs to keep the whole machinery and all of the machines on motion. So, despite all of this done, we should learn from the past and let’s not forget history,” added Omatseye.

 The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has issued an advisory to help the public prevent an outbreak of Ebola in the country. Their recommendations include regular hand washing with soap and water, use of hand sanitizers when soap and water is not readily available, avoiding direct handling of dead wild animals and physical contact with anyone who has possible symptoms of an infection with an unknown diagnosis.

 Health workers are also urged to ensure “universal care precautions at all times.”