₦airaland Forum

deeobserver209: With or without American Support Nigeria has the capacity to tackle Boko Haram. The Americans themselves know that fact. Black Hawk down is still very much fresh in their minds.

davitogreat: Right... So giving the funds to ghana, Rwanda and Uganda is so much better. Funny seeing the stupid comments in the thread.
I swear Nigerians can sometimes be some of the most stupid people you can ever come across. They think by by speaking ill of nigeria in every situation they are enlightened and forward thinking when Infact it's the opposite.

davitogreat: I'm hoping Jonathan is able to borrow the 1 billion so that more weapons can be acquired.

thegoodjoehunt3: On that case, yes it would have worked. On the possibility of it entering, it would not have worked.

Yes, border control would help. I feel helping the fight against the spread generally would have been more effective.

jomonic: Yes agreed, you are very correct in your logic. But I wish we demanded for accountability from all former Nigerian leaders with the same intensity and darkest vehemence as we have done with GEJ and by all and sundry not just a select group who mischievously believe or find it very irksome that Nigeria is now under the management of an Ijaw president. If all Nigerians were united from the beginning in their pursuit for good governance our democracy would be at a very advanced stage today. The decay staring us in the face today came from our distant past. Gowon, Murtala, OBJ, Shagari, Buhari, IBB, Shonekan, Abacha, OBJ had messed up Nigeria before Yaradua / GEJ took over. Tell me a suitable alternative to GEJ today; I mean one who is ready to see all Nigerians as one. It is neither Tinubu, nor Buhari or any of their like. Power in their hands will only make some people happy but will not advance Nigeria one bit. They have tried before and failed. They will still fail again. We should stop looking for individuals who will make Nigeria good. There is no such person under our current system. We should rather seek to correct the system and then good leaders will emerge. This is the only way. Even Barack Obama will fail as a Nigerian president.

thegoodjoehunt3: These are steps. But, a primary carrier might not have the fever and the infra red will not detect it.

thegoodjoehunt3: The bodies like WHO and some NGO's battled to contain the spread of the virus for months before it came to Nigeria. If our government has taken their plight as a national problem, we should have supported them financially to get more equipments, facilities and staffs on ground to meticulously fight the spread.

thegoodjoehunt3: I did not say we should not prevent it. But, we must use a preventive means that will work.

It would have been even more helpful, if we had aided the effected countries to prevent the spread that closing our borders.

arewarepublic: Is there any harm in accepting the truth?

ovadoze: I don't entertain quotes from morons...gud9t

thegoodjoehunt3: Closing our borders, screening of passengers with Fever will not help. Our best bet is to get clinical trials of these experimental drugs from Japan's Tekmira and Fujifilm started.

jomonic: Vile forces in Nigeria are so vocal and relentless. Must GEJ be blamed for every wrong in Nigeria. If GEJ is not competent, what word can we use to describe other heads of state who we all know were worse that incompetent.

ovadoze: Yeah let's continue to blame GEJ, yeah he should have been at the airport to turn back Mr. Sawyer, he should have developed cure for Ebola virus by now, infact GEJ was supposed to carry gun and enter Sambisa forest to kill members of the BH, he shouldn't have killed Yusuf the founder of the islamic sect(Yaradua did), he shouldn't have allowed Buhari to overthrow the civilian govt of Shehu Shagari, he shouldn't have allowed the military to rule us for that long, he enthroned corruption in Nigeria, yes he did, he liquidated most Nigerian owned companies (NITEL and Nigerian airways comes to mind), blame him when u have dysmenorrhea, blame him when ur lecturer takes bribe, he's supposed to tell Islamic radicals that they shouldn't kill their fellow human being in the name of religion, blame him for the death of morals in the country, blame him for causing the civil war, blame him for the laziness and ineptitude of Nigerians, blame him when u fail exams, blame him for nailing Christ to the cross, blame him for all the things that happened in Nigeria before he was born, blame him for the amalgamation of northern and southern Nigeria. Keep blaming him.

austertee01: Talking about the military presence in Osun.....
The security is necessary for the whole electoral process
and we should all understand that.... there is need for
heavy
security considering the candidates contesting...
Try and see the good side of GEJ for once.
# MyOpinion . God
Bless Nigeria!

Phinity318: Now FFk don talk like a reasonable politician should una still dy whine!!!

naptu2: Fact is that there was nothing preventing us from:

1) increasing our alert level.

2) setting up a committee that has representatived from ministry of health, information, the armed forces, immigration service, customs service, Nimasa, NCA, FAAN, etc to manage our response to the threat.

3) banning flights from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

4) setting up screening centres at all points of entry (equipped with infrared scanners, etc).

5) Training our cutoms, immigrations and port officials to prepare them to deal with the situation.

And doing all these since April.

Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa! It's a no-brainer that people from the affected countries will try to enter Nigeria for work, business, etc.

It was the duty of the government of Nigeria to protect its citizens from this threat and they didn't do a good job.

eaglechild: Derailing what?

deeobserver209: It amazes me to see some people here blaming the Federal Government on the outbreak of Ebola virus in the Country. This goes to show the level of ignorance ravaging Nigerians about the nature of the disease. First of all the person who brought it was a Liberian American, not a Nigerian. Secondly, it was expected that every West African country already battling with the outbreak of Ebola would make sure that no traveller infected with the disease is allowed to travel outside the country.
Obviously the Liberian government fail in that regard, and here we are. To set the record straight, am not a medical person. Just a normal person like you.
What many of us here should have done is ask intelligent questions. Questions like:
1. What is Ebola virus?
2. What is the microscopic structure of the disease?
3. What are the differences between Ebola and the AIDS virus?
4. Is the virus both animate an in inanimate?
5. Is the virus airborne?
6. What are the relationship between the Ebola virus, dengue fever and lassa fever?

These and lots more are some of the questions we should be asking to understand it better. There's a lot more about Ebola virus than the world is ready to dish out to the public.
Personally what interest me about this disease is the microscopic structure. The fact that individuals infected with the disease bleed from every part of the body when not treated on time tells me that we are dealing with one of the most tiniest viruses ever. When you consider that fact you would realize that the mode of infection from one person to another may not be only through contact with bodily fluid. I don't know much about that as I said earlier, am not a doctor but am doing my own personal research about other possible mode of transmission.
I will advice that rather than blame the government for the outbreak of this disease, we should instead carry out a research to find out more information about it. Research on the history of the disease. More information about this disease will give us all the arsenals we need manage it properly. Remember disease don't kill people. It is ignorance that kills people.

eaglechild: Lol!

Looks like you are losing it.

You started the thread to malign the FG and praise your paymaster Fashola, you have NO intention to provide facts that will help the general public in the fight against Ebola.

Unfortunately you do not even have the details and your propaganda is collapsing on you.

There is no need for tempers to flair.
You will not be paid for this job, you did not do well.

naptu2: Gosh! Do you mean that the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria needs to wait for the WHO or Arik Air to tell it to ban flights from certain countries?

Gosh! I've never heard such nonsense in my life!

jesuslovesme123: Your last 6 words are exactly what my point is. These measures were taken AFTER the fact. Why did Nigeria have to wait for ebola to get into Nigeria before doing anything?

Your comments reflect the mediocrity that Nigerians have accepted for too long. This mediocrity has cost, and will cost some Nigerians their lives.

The WHO should not have to think for Nigeria. If you have a neighbour with the Ebola virus, would you fling open the doors to your home, waiting for the WHO to advise you to protect yourself? I hope not...

eaglechild: Given that you have fed us here with so much misinformation.

I cannot even draw the line between facts and fiction coming from you.

In any case go back and read my previous posts.

eaglechild: Lol!

First of all Sawyer was not first treated by that LASG that you worship.

He was taken to first consultant Ikoyi a private outfit, which I must say acted professionally by treating the patient with a high index of suspicion and insisted on getting the patient tested.
They also acted professionally by notifying the government of a reportable disease knowing fully well that that will lead to the shut down of the facility.

There are tiers of government and naturally the clinic will notify the state ministry of health which happens to be Lagos, who will now go ahead and notify the Federal ministry of health.


LASG that you worship did absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
Rather it would have been gross incompetence on their part if they had kept mute.


The quarantine facilities are being manned by the LASG, FG, WHO, CDC whether you come here and type rubbish and post pictures of your god Fashola it does not change the facts on ground.

eaglechild: Even before the WHO sounded the alarm bells just after the Sawyer incident.
All flights form Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were cancelled.

All passengers coming from high risk zones are checked for constitutional symptoms and further tested if need be.

All level one contacts have been traced and quarantined.

Other contacts are under surveillance.

$11M dollars has been released by the FG to combat the illness.

$200M by the world bank of which Nigeria will benefit.

[s]Isolation centres have been set up by the FG[/s] by the LASG.

The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku; made government’s position known while also briefing journalists on the outcome of the FEC meeting

Maku said the meeting was devoted to the measures being taken by government to deal with the outbreak of the virus.

He recalled that the council had set up a committee about two weeks ago to sensitise Nigerians to avoid unhealthy practices.

Obiagelli: just imagine the nonsense coming from the federal government, very sad.

We are making arrangements to procure isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

South-West governors on Wednesday rose from a meeting in Lagos and called on the Federal Government to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

Before that, the Minsiter of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu and the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, announced at separate news conferences that the matron of the Lagos hospital where a Liberian-born American, Patrick Sawyer, was admitted, died on Tuesday afternoon.

The matron whose name was not given by Chukwu,and Idris, was reported by the media on Wednesday to have shown the symptoms of the virus.

She was among the health workers that attended to Sawyer who died in the Lagos hospital on July 25 and officially, the first Nigerian casualty.

The matron had been quarantined alongside seven others at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba, Lagos for close monitoring.

One of them, a female medical doctor, who also attended to Sawyer, had also contracted the disease.

About 59 people were reported to have had direct or primary contacts with the Liberian-American. Twenty seven others who had secondary contacts with the primary contacts had been traced.

Chukwu, while announcing the death of the Lagos matron confirmed seven other Ebola cases, Idris called on religious groups in the state to stop all gatherings until a solution to Ebola outbreak was found.

The South-West governors first met behind closed-doors at the Lagos House, Ikeja, and later with commissioners for Health in the zone.

In attendance were the host Governor, Babatunde Fashola; Olusegun Mimiko(Ondo); Ibikunle Amosun(Ogun); Kayode Fayemi(Ekiti); and the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Moses Adeyemo.

They said the Federal Government must assist the states by ensuring that all the nation’s borders in the zone were effectively policed to ensure that Ebola virus did not get into their states.

Fashola, at a news conference said the meeting afforded them the opportunity to share experiences and seek collaborative efforts to prevent the spread of the virus in the zone.

He said, “The meeting addressed issues of containment and the challenges of illegal borders.

“We also discussed possible support by the Federal Government and coordination among states. We feel that it is imperative that our collaboration suggests to us that Nigerians should not panic and that we would overcome this with the very best practices and collaboration.

“It is important therefore that advocacy must continue about what the risks are and the sources are.”

Amosun said Ogun State was overwhelmed and was short of manpower and material to effectively man its over 100 illegal borders where foreigners enter the state with ease.

He said, “We are more prone and more at risk to Ebola virus and we have put all our security agencies and the respective medics at these illegal borders.

“But when you have in excess of 100, you and I know that the state doesn’t have the capacity to man these borders.

Mimiko said the onus lay on every Nigerian to ensure that foreigners did not have unfettered access into the country.

“Every Nigerian should know that those who aid and abet illegal entry into Nigeria now could be up to something that could be dangerous to the health of the country.”

Fayemi spoke on the possibility of Nigeria seeking the assistance of the United States for ZMapp, an experimental drug for the treatment of the EVD.

He said, “The drug has not been certified as a cure for the disease; however, the Federal Government can try out its efficacy in a controlled centre.”

FG confirms seven Ebola cases

The Health minister, at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, said, “Nigeria has now recorded seven confirmed cases of EVD.

“The first one was the index case, which is the imported case from Liberia of which the victim(Sawyer) is now late.

“On August 5, 2014, the first known Nigerian to die of the EVD was recorded and this was one of the nurses that attended to the Liberian.

“The other five cases are currently being treated at an isolation ward in Lagos.”

He added that all the Nigerians diagnosed were primary contacts of the index case.

Chukwu also announced the appointment of Prof. O. Onajole of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital as the director, Communication and Community Mobilisation. for the EVD.

He pledged to visit Lagos within the week, in company with his colleagues in the Ministry of Information, to assess the situation on the ground.

He added that the 24/7 Emergency Operations Centre planned by the government would be fully functional by tomorrow (Thursday) . Dr. Faisal Shuaibu will be the Incident Manager of the centre.

Shuaibu was expected to lead a six-member inter-agency team, drawn from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, the US CDC, the WHO, UNICEF and the Bill and Medinda Gates Foundation to Lagos to complete the setting up of the centre.

Chukwu said the team would be joined by other personnel from the Lagos State Government, federal hospitals in the state and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

He added, “We are embarking on recruiting additional health personnel to strengthen the team who are currently managing the situation in Lagos.

“We are making arrangements to procure isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

“We are also setting up a special team to provide counselling and psychosocial support to patients, identified contacts and their families.”

The minister reassured Nigerians that the government was working hard to ensure the containment of the outbreak.

Chukwu later told State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, that he had requested the experimental drug being used to treat two American missionary doctors infected with the virus in Liberia from the US Centre for Disease Control.

The minister, who also shed light on the isolation tents, said as of the time he was briefing journalists, he had yet to receive a response from the USCDC.

Chukwu explained that the isolation tents would be used to cater for those who might be quarantined because of the virus.

This, he said, had become necessary because residents were raising objection to housing the patients close to them.

He put the cost of one isolation tent at about N20m.

“We have a national emergency. Indeed, everyone in the world is at risk. Nobody is immune. The Nigerian experience had alerted the world because every country is connected by flights,” the minister said.

The minister also said the government had decided to embark on mass recruitment of health personnel to strenghten the team managing the outbreak in Lagos.

He expressed the hope that the Nigeria Medical Association would soon call off its strike to join in the emergency service since government had met almost all their demands.

Chukwu warned members of the public to stop wearing gloves as a way of stopping the spread of the virus, saying such practice could further compound the situation.

He however advised them to avoid handshake as much as possible if they could afford it, describing the virus as both contagious and infectious.

He said the virus could also be contracted through the sharing of bedspreads, pillow cases and towels among other personal effects with infected persons.

Chukwu also said a website, www.ebolaalert.org, had been designed to offer information on the virus.

While disclosing the existence of a Twitter handle, @ebolaalert, the minister added that help could also be reached through a designated toll-free telephone line .

Ebola outbreak, national emergency –FG

The Federal Government also said on Wednesday that the Ebola outbreak had become a matter of national emergency.

The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku; made government’s position known while also briefing journalists on the outcome of the FEC meeting

Maku said the meeting was devoted to the measures being taken by government to deal with the outbreak of the virus.

He recalled that the council had set up a committee about two weeks ago to sensitise Nigerians to avoid unhealthy practices.

Lagos to offer life insurance cover to doctors, others

In Lagos, Idris told journalists that the matron, who also contracted the EVD while participating in managing Sawyer died at about 2.06pm on Tuesday.

The commissioner added, ‘In all, eight people came in contact with Sawyer, comprising the dead matron, the doctor on admission at the IDH, the four new victims and two other people, whose medical test results are being awaited. Two of the four new victims are critically ill.”

Idris said that 27 people who came into contact with those on admission at the IDH had as of Tuesday been traced.

When asked what government intended to do concerning the traced secondary contacts, he replied, “ We cannot isolate these 27 secondary contacts because they are not showing symptoms yet, they are just contacts.

“What we can do for now is to monitor them; take their blood samples for testing and check their temperature daily. If any one of them starts showing symptoms, then we will take him or her to the hospital.”

He called on volunteers to help the state in tracing more secondary contacts and in managing the established cases since the situation was “a dire emergency.”

The commissioner said the state was presently facing a shortage of health workers needed to attend to those that had been infected and more of those that might be isolated for monitoring.

He disclosed that the government would offer life insurance cover to those who volunteered to work with experts monitoring and testing suspected Ebola cases.

Idris said, “We will provide life insurance cover for any doctor, nurse and other experts that want to work with isolated patients.

“We need more hands, because we have moved from the stage of primary contacts to secondary contacts.We are tracing all the people that had contacts not just with Sawyer, but those that had contacts with the health workers and others that have died. We have identified 27 secondary contacts already and we are tracing the addresses of others.

“ it is a tedious task, because we will also be taking their blood samples for testing and we will be monitoring them.

“We are appealing to the doctors on strike to resume work and set aside their grievances. This situation is a dire emergency and our health professionals must recognise that.

“It will be morally unjustifiable for us to call for help from the international community if our own experts and doctors are not working.”

Idris added that the government would evacuate tuberculosis patients at the IDH to another hospital to accommodate more suspected and isolated Ebola cases.

He said, “ The TB patients at Mainland hospital were protesting this(Wednesday) morning but we made them to understand that if they stayed there, they might be exposed to Ebola virus .

“If we need to evacuate any hospital to ensure that we contain this(Ebola) disease, we will do it. If we have to take suspected cases to LASUTH, we will do it. If we need to take decisions that will inconvenience some people but beneficial to the larger population, we will do it because Ebola is a highly infectious disease.”



punchng.com

Mynd44: I don't see the point in this debate though.....the FG had no clue how to deal with the Ebola thingy. We were not prepared at the federal level as we did not man our borders well neither did we have anything in place to stop or contain it.

If the LASG had not stepped in/or if the patient did not land in Lagos, we would have been exposed if it was another state. The Lagos state officials Doctors, nurses, commisioner and everyone who helped contained this deserves a lot of thanks a thousand times and thousands times more.

Up till now, I still have not seen the FG do anything substantial. And for the past 2-3 days, we have not heard a new case outside those contained/quarrantined. This is good news and a job well done.

The FG should be the first defense and they failed. But LASG picked it up.

To the families of the dead health officials, my deepest condolence, those people deserve medals and honors

drnoel: Still the question remains unanswered. Are u not going to answer the question?

Sincere9gerian: Now that you'v found the meaning of PROACTIVE, the next question is when did Fashola put up those isolation centres? Before OR after the Ebola outbreak in Lagos?

Meanwhile, I hope you'll find time to thank me for taking you through this lecture series.