Hi guys, below is my thought on lessons that we must take away from the Ebola virus reaching Nigeria. Let's all hope and work together to prevent its spread. I hope you'll enjoy reading.

If the Ebola virus disease (EVD) has come to Nigeria for any reasons, it must have been to teach Nigerians two important lessons. One is to always observe orderliness and the other is to ensure good personal hygiene and cleanliness, which they say is next to ‘Godliness’. I want to believe that Ebola has borrowed Patrick Sawyer as its carrier to teach Nigerians, in one of the hardest ways, how to keep good hygiene and be more organized in all of their affairs.

Since the news of the first EVD infection broke in Nigeria and until now, we have seen drama in the manner people behave when it comes to safeguarding themselves against the killer virus while they go about their daily businesses. In a bid to combat the virus, some have attempted bathing and drinking salty water while some were reported to have consumed bitter kola as if they were sure it cures EVD.

Ebola is very deadly and fierce, especially due to its mode of transmission, which can be through contact with victims’ blood, sweat, saliva, mucus, urine, faeces and other bodily fluids. With this mode of transmission, if any community should be at high risk for Ebola pandemic, it is such that exists in Nigeria where majority of the population cohabit in jam-packed apartments with communal toilets and bathrooms and even kitchens. Many don’t have access to toilets not to talk of keeping proper sanitation whereby urinating or defecating at every available space in nearby bushes of shrubs. In such instances, how can you distinguish between an ‘Ebola patient’s urine or faeces?

Bush meat – another probable way that Ebola is being transmitted, is a special delicacy for some people in Nigeria. But with the popularity of EVD, many have shunned eating bush meat. Those who love to eat ‘Suya’ (barbecue beef), a popular snack in Nigeria, are also being teased that they might contract the virus thus avoiding it. Many Nigerians also depend on ‘Buka’ (roadside food vendors) for daily supply of their meals. No one really inspect these vendors to ensure food is prepared to acceptable standard. Without batting an eye, Nigerians buy and drink home-made beverages such as tea, cocoa drinks, ‘sobo’ or ‘pito’ (hibiscus/rosette flower drink), ‘kunu’, ‘wara’ ‘fura de nunu’ (all cow milk products). Now tell me, if Ebola should be endemic in Nigeria, why do we think people won’t contract the virus in large number if they don’t take extra precautions?

But one thing to note is the news filtering out that a good number of people now appreciate cleaning and grooming themselves on a daily basis while they also avoid shoving and pushing that we regularly witness at bus parks and market places, especially in Lagos and other big cities. There have also been news of how Lagosians now queue up and file up in an orderly manner when boarding commercial vehicles just to avoid contact with the next person and how people avoid shaking hands but chose to salute each other instead in the manner our brothers from the North will usually great their chieftains saying ‘rankadede Alhaji’ while holding up one arm, with raised fist, in the other. Even most of our leaders now prefer that way of greeting too.

It is a good thing that the virus is still not anywhere near being an epidemic in Nigeria as cases were only confirmed in Lagos State and one blood sample from Kaduna tested positive. However, the proactive reaction of citizens (both comical and seriously) and how contacts and victims are being identified, except for the few non-conformists like the nurse who escaped to Enugu from Lagos quarantine centre, is also reassuring and encouraging that the virus has not come home to roost in my beloved country.

Meanwhile, we can only hope that those at the helm of the affairs will continue with the momentum of salvage people's lives and ensure that the virus does not spread further as I believe this is what should be paramount in the mind of any sensible government, realising the susceptibility of its people. Let's pray the government and the health personnel will continue to rise to the occasion and ensure the virus does not have a foothold in our backyards.

As the world follow Ebola updates with bated breath and openly wish for it to be contained soon and for a cure or vaccine protecting against EVD become a reality, I will implore Nigerians to seriously consider keeping good hygiene and cleanliness; as well as ensuring proper sanitary health aside avoiding contact with any person sick with those symptoms similar to EVD. They should also ensure to carry on with proper hygiene education beyond Ebola and ensure this is passed down to generations yet unborn as I believe that there is a great lesson in Ebola’s spread to Nigeria.

You can also read more stuff by me at https://rovingscribe./

Official daily updates about EVD and more about its symptoms and mode of spreading can be viewed at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en/

OP, you have spoken the stark truth!

but there are certain things i would love to point out.

first, Ebola virus is not deadly because of its mode of transmission. it is deadly because it is highly infectious. this means that the virus has effective mechanisms it uses to penetrate the body's first lines of defence such as the skin and mucous membrane. and when it finally enters, it is potent enough to knock down your immune system initiating a diseased state. it then goes ahead to cause death in 90% of its cases.

Secondly, it is true that EVD has taught us the importance of hygiene in a painful way, however people practice hygiene from without. they erroneously and ignorantly believe that: not shaking hands, wearing long sleeved clothes to/and prevent(ing) the skin/sweat of others from touching theirs can prevent the spread of ebola.

Finally, i like the way you write and air your views. i will definitely be a daily visitor of your blog

jpphilips: The only sane thing to do was not allowing Sawyer to bring that virus here just like Ghana, Ivory coast and Senegal have done, anything short of that is a reverberation of the failure of Govt and the laxity of the Mofo who parades himself as the Health Minister.
About washing hands, Nigerians will appreciate it better if the Govt stick to its usual propaganda mechanism, same way they exchange words with APC, or the same way they told us that no Nigerian has the Virus at the demise of Sawyer, i believe Nigerians will learn better that way.

If Nigerians like this OP can get inebriated by the fact that her govt is teaching her to "wash hands" by inviting a lethal virus, then sane minds like me should be asking if Nigerians are cursed or we are the cause?

My dear brother, part of the duties and responsibilities of any sensible government should be ensuring good hygiene among the populace and that should be by 'teaching' them or canvassing proper sanitation or good personal hygiene such as simple act like hand washing. Doing so will not only safe the government from the needs to regularly deal with pandemics such as Ebola but also the entire community would be healthy as many infectious diseases are known to transmit mostly through the hands. I think the issues of poor hygiene and improper sanitation in Nigeria, which is allowing infectious diseases and others like malaria to thrive should be of concern to us more than saying someone is getting 'inebriated' that government is teaching us hand washing by inviting lethal virus.