That the dreaded coronavirus or COVID-19 is now in Nigeria is no longer news. Despite the assurances by the federal government that facilities have been put in place to combat the pandemic, checks on our health care system, ignorance, poverty, culture, and other factors have revealed that Nigerians are at risk of widespread infection. PAUL OKAH reports.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also warned that coronavirus can be spread through contaminated objects, bank notes, droplets, and direct contact with infected patients and that it will take eighteen months for scientists and researchers to discover a vaccine.
Since the coronavirus or COVID-19 was discovered in Wuhan, China, in December last year, it has reportedly killed more than 3,300 people and infected more than 100,000 peoples in over 100 countries, with figures rising daily and world economies adversely affected.
In Africa
Earlier, this year, while many countries across the world were bemoaning their fates, the African continent seemed to be immune from the virus until Egypt became the first African country to record a case, which was followed by Tunisia and Algeria until it started spreading to other African countries like Togo, Cameroon, South Africa, and Senegal.
Nigeria
Despite the sensitisation campaigns by the federal government and assurances of preparedness to combat the virus, Nigerians woke on February 28, 2020, to learn that a yet-to-be-named Italian had tested positive to the virus upon arrival in Lagos from Milan on February 24 and had to be quarantined and presently being treated at the Infectious Disease Centre in Yaba, Lagos.
As if that was not enough, information had it that the index case (the anonymous Italian) had travelled to Ogun state on a business trip, undetected of the virus, thereby exposing hundreds of Nigerians to the pandemic – both in Lagos and Ogun states. Therefore, when he checked himself into a hospital for self- quarantine, Nigerians understandably pressed the panic button, knowing the poor nature of our health care system, especially as many people in Plateau and Adamawa states were also quarantined; for fear of their being exposed to the virus.
Senators’ warning
Prior to the first incident recorded in Lagos state, the senator representing Ondo North, Robert Ajayi- Boroffice, had raised the alarm on Nigeria’s unpreparedness to combat the virus, citing his observation at a national airport where officials were “careless” and comparing it with what he saw in South Africa.
At the plenary on February 27, 2020, the President of Senate, Ahmad Lawan, demanded that travellers from China be quarantined, mandating the committees on Primary Health Care and Health to open discussions with the Federal Ministry of Health to ensure that precautionary measures taken to prevent the virus from spreading to Nigeria.
“We must be prepared. We must take all the necessary measures at our ports: airports, seaports. If someone is coming from China, he should be quarantined, not self-isolation. I want to urge the committees on Primary Health Care and Health to engage with the Federal Ministry of Health once again. We want to see every possible effort done in our airports or seaports,” he said.
A lawmaker’s lamentations
Earlier on, coming under Order 43 of the Senate Rules, Senator Ajayi- Boroffice decried the absence of health officials at the nation’s air and seaports to screen travellers coming into the country.
The lawmaker, who narrated his experience in South Africa, where travellers were kept onboard the aircraft for medical screening for 30 minutes, lamented that no such screening took place at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport, Abuja, when he returned to the country.
He said, “I was in South Africa on Friday; I came back yesterday (Wednesday). Because of the issue of coronavirus, every country in the world is taking preventive measures because the wisdom is that prevention is better than cure. In South Africa, we were not allowed to leave the aircraft for 30 minutes. Officers of the medical corps came into the aircraft and screened everybody before we were allowed out.
“But I arrived yesterday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport and there was no screening. All we were given is a sheet of paper to indicate whether we were sick and whether we have been to one country or the other and how we will be contacted if there is an emergency. How will you trail me? How do you know if I have fallen sick? This is very frightening.
“Something has to be done to ensure that we do not give way to a situation which we will not be able to control. Countries that have adequate medical facilities are working hard to ensure that they contain the spread of Coronavirus. From what I saw yesterday, I was afraid.”
Effects of poverty
With the virus now in Nigeria, just a day after lawmakers decried the unpreparedness of the nation’s health care system, many factors may necessitate its spread to states and communities, with ignorance, poverty and our poor healthcare system being chief among them.
Mass travelling in commercial buses for low and middle income earners, either inter or intra state, is a norm many Nigerians have come to be identified with. Therefore, the fact cannot be ruled out that many will be infected in buses, markets, worship centres, and other crowded places, even if they manage to avoid the infection in their streets.
Self-medication
With evident poverty of many Nigerians, self-medication has become the common resort of many, especially with the sometimes high cost of accessing health care in Nigerian hospitals, the porous nature of hospitals and even the lackadaisical manner of health care workers in attending to patients.
Needless to say that many Nigerians will opt for over the counter drugs when they are infected with the virus, “instead of checking into a hospital to spend thousands of naira to treat a fever that ordinary paracetamol can cure,” thereby exposing other innocent Nigerians to the pandemic.
An expert’s take
A researcher, Tunde Aremu, told Blueprint Weekend that Nigeria is wide open to the infection as there are no facilities on ground to combat its spread, even as he shared a personal experience with FCT health workers.
He said, “For over a month, I have quarrelled with people I felt were intent on pressing the panic button. However, events around a friend, who voluntarily brought me into his situation, brought me in contact with some scary realities. My friend returned to the country recently and shortly after experienced some fever and slight cough. They were symptoms of malaria, but he felt he should not take things for granted.
“He locked himself in his hotel room and would not have contact with non-medical persons. He literally quarantined himself and called for help. He called the FCT Centre for Disease Control (CDC), but they did not respond. It took a doctor friend of mine calling contacts there before they attended to him…on phone and they concluded it was malaria.
“Checks I have made since, through reliable sources at the CDC, show nothing is on ground in the FCT. Media reports of the situation in Lagos, where we had all thought is prepared, gives no comfort either. I think at this point, we need to rage against these characters before they put us all in irredeemable harm’s way.”
Handshake culture
Nigerians are communal, affable, convivial and jovial people, who find more warmth in handshakes or embracing than waving to someone from afar in the name of greeting, let alone the bizarre ‘leg-shake’ being currently adopted by many in social gatherings. Therefore, with the virus also said to be transmitted through handshakes, many Nigerians should brace up to the pandemic, especially as the culture of handshakes and embracing will not be taken away from Nigerians anytime soon, particularly for those in rural communities.
Worse still, Nigerians are yet to imbibe the culture of personal hygiene, including hand washing, as many Nigerians only find it necessary to wash their hands either before or after eating certain types of food, thereby visiting different places with bacteria lodged in their hands.
Bank notes
The WHO has warned that bank notes could aid the transmission of the infectious disease and, therefore, urged cashless transactions when making purchases.
WHO advised that, in the event where they handle money, people should make it a regular habit to wash their hands immediately, warning that coronavirus could be on the surface of banknotes for several days; hence, the need to refrain from using money for transactions as much as possible.
Media reports quoted a WHO spokesman as saying, “To stop the spread of the disease, people should use contactless payments where possible and wash their hands after handling cash. We know that money changes hands frequently and can pick up all sorts of bacteria and viruses.
“We would advise people to wash their hands after handling banknotes and avoid touching their face. When possible, it would also be advisable to use contactless payments to reduce the risk of transmission.”
With the WHO revealing that the virus can also be transmitted through bank notes, many Nigerians are prone to infections because of the fact that we are yet to fully imbibe the culture of cashless policy.
A check in daily transactions over products and services reveals that many Nigerians prefer cash to bank or electronic transfer, no matter the amount involved, thereby exposing buyers and sellers of different products to avoidable infections.
Ignorance, religion
Just like in 2014, when the Ebola virus was brought into Nigeria by a Liberian identified as Patrick Sawyer, many Nigerians have started spreading fake news and deceiving ignorant Nigerians on what could be used to cure the coronavirus.
Like in 2014, when many people were “advised” by unscrupulous Nigerians to bath with salt in order to prevent or cure the Ebola virus, Nigerians are presently being misled with news that “regular intake of alcohol is the sure cure of coronavirus,” many ignorant Nigerians expressing more faith in fake news than in health experts.
Similarly, “God forbid, it is not my portion!” is the common anthem of many self- professed Christians, who believe that they are immune to different diseases simply because they believe in God and who would even prefer to buy anointing oil, fast and pray for a sickness to go away; rather than check into a hospital for treatment.
Many self-appointed pastors and religious leaders now cash in on the pandemic by selling “spiritual emoluments” to blind worshippers, so Nigerians should not be surprised to see the virus spreading faster than anticipated.
Lamenting the situation, a scholar, Mrs. Rosemary Okoro, told Blueprint Weekend that many Nigerians, especially Christians, are “enemies of progress” as they use the situation of the pandemic to inflate prices of health products and to exploit others.
She said, “Nigerians are the greatest enemies of Nigeria, capitalising on every little excuse to inflate prices. During fuel scarcity, filling station owners hoard products so they can sell at outrageous prices. What a people that can sacrifice their happiness for pecuniary gains!
“You will find out that the people, who always capitalise on every little distressed issue to inflate prices, are the so called ‘born-again Christians.’ Do you know that face masks I usually buy at the rate of N20 is now N150, due to the outbreak of this coronavirus? People now capitalise on this to inflate prices.”
Sanitisers in offices
A check in many private and government establishments revealed that Nigerians are wide open to the spread of the virus as a result of the unavailability of hand sanitisers in strategic locations.
When toiletries can be stolen from hotels or government offices by unscrupulous Nigerians, due to poverty, ignorance, wickedness and others, many consider buying and installing hand sanitisers in public offices as another waste of money, thereby throwing up questions of how fast Nigerians can be infected.
Though experts say that washing of hands with soap and running water is equally as effective as using hand sanitisers, a visit to many government offices in states across the federation would reveal that they lack water let alone soap for hand washing.
Therefore, with the possibility of coming in contact with familiar faces in such offices and exchanging handshakes, there is every certainty that the virus would be transmitted faster than expected even to innocent or unexpected people.
Doctors on strike
Perhaps, to drive home the point that Nigerians are on their own and that they can’t risk their lives over peanuts, health workers across the country have seized this period to embark on strike over alleged poor payment and poor treatment by government.
In fact, on Wednesday, March 4, in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by the president of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Kaduna state chapter, Dr. Emmanuel Joseph, Kaduna doctors commenced an indefinite strike over “state government’s failure to honour an agreement it had with the association; bordering on salary adjustments and tackling some challenges in the health sector.”
He said the doctors would not accept new patients in any public health facility and were currently discharging or referring patients on admission, as they cannot fully manage them, especially as the ARD had kept its own part of the bargain, while government has severally disappointed them; despite reminders and lobbying by the association.
“The government team again went to sleep until we were forced to give further reminders of our looming deadline. So, we were compelled to take this sad step. As a sign of good faith, we will continue to manage the patients in the infectious Diseases Control Centre being currently managed for Lassa fever till patients fully recover,” he said.
