Boko Haram: Panic in Borno/Adamawa Communities as Boko Haram flee Gwoza

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <header class="post-header cf" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="featured" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://sunnewsonline.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Boko-Haram-militants1.jpg" itemprop="image" rel="prettyPhoto" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Panic in Borno/Adamawa communities"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="Boko-Haram-militants" class="attachment-main-slider wp-post-image no-display appear" height="336" src="http://sunnewsonline.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Boko-Haram-militants1-702x336.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Panic in Borno/Adamawa communities" width="702" /></span></a></div> <h1 class="post-title" itemprop="name" style="border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 35px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 18px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Panic in Borno/Adamawa communities</span></span></h1> </header><div class="post-meta" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(217, 217, 217); border-bottom-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(217, 217, 217); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; margin: 0px 0px 21px; overflow: hidden; padding: 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">…As Boko Haram insurgents flee Gwoza</strong></div> <div class="post-container cf" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="post-content-right" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="post-content description" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px -1.857em; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Fear has gripped residents of some communi­ties around the border of Borno and Ad­amawa states following rumours that Boko Ha­ram insurgents fleeing from Gwoza may attack their communities.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ezekiel Musa and Markus Yalah, both residents of Askira, south of Borno and Madagali in Adamawa State said they fled the communi­ties yesterday to Maiduguri to stay with their brothers in response to the rumour that Boko Haram was planning to attack their towns.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We heard Boko Haram men left Gwoza and have vowed to attack some com­munities in Askira/Uba again. So most people have not been sleeping very well since Thursday. We had to leave because everybody is talking about it. We came through Biu to Gujba in Yobe,” Markus disclosed.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Also, a Maiduguri resident who did not want his name in print confirmed the develop­ment, adding that his mother intimated him about the anxiety in his village. “My mother told me people in our village didn’t sleep since Thursday. I asked her to come to Maiduguri, but she refused, I’m worried about her safety now,” the resident, a civil servant told Sunday Sun. He said the movement of Boko Haram insurgent out of Gwoza on Thursday has triggered panic in the area.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For nearly 10 days, Boko Haram insurgents took over Gwoza town, about 183 from the capital Maiduguri after a deadly attack. Thousands of residents were forced to flee the area even as mili­tary forces battled to regain control of the hilly town. Sources however said the in­tensity of military air strikes on the area pushed out the in­surgents on Thursday as they headed for Pulka, few kilo­metres away where they car­ried out another attack, fuel­ing speculation the terrorists may visit other communities southward with violence.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Meanwhile, a member representing Gwoza State Constituency in the Borno State House of Assembly, Hon Usman Jana Babayo has said over 65 per cent of peo­ple displaced by the recent Gwoza attack have taken ref­uge in Uba, Borno and Mubi in Adamawa State but lack food and clean water. He said the situation compelled Bor­no State government to pro­cure relief materials worth N10 million, adding that the materials have been distrib­uted to those at Madagali, 40 kilometres, south of Gwoza.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Some fled to Uba and Madagali while others went as far as Mubi in Adamawa for safety. Some are still on the mountain,” he disclosed.<b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></b></span></div> <div> <br /></div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Boko Haram: Panic in Borno/Adamawa Communities as Boko Haram flee Gwoza

Panic in Borno/Adamawa communities …As Boko Haram insurgents flee Gwoza Fear has gripped residents of some communi­ties around th...

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E B O L A : Businessmen, Bankers, Transporters, Sportsmen tell their stories

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Monday, August 11, Victoria Island, Lagos. An elegant woman hurried into a gym, met her husband working out and dragged him out of the place, saying: “You need to be alive to lose weight.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">You must avoid gyms for now.” Only last night, life appeared to be dimming in a popular night club in Victoria Island.  Before now, it was always jammed up with people sweating and dancing.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/e-b-o-l-businessmen-bankers-transporters-sportsmen-tell-stories/cartoon-ebola/" rel="attachment wp-att-459835" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.2s linear, border-top-color; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color 0.2s linear, border-top-color; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="Cartoon-ebola" class="alignright size-full wp-image-459835" height="250" src="http://dvsl3w2q45hb8.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Cartoon-ebola.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.2s linear, box-shadow; border: none; display: inline; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: margin 0.2s linear, box-shadow;" width="412" /></span></a></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Panic and unprecedented fear has gripped many Nigerians over  the deadly Ebola Virus. Social life is changing.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">From commercial banks to local markets; from recreation and leisure places like restaurants, sports clubs, bush meat spots,  bars and pepper soup joints, businesses and social activities especially in Lagos are waning. Daily life activities are now being followed with utmost caution in order to prevent the virus that has claimed a number of lives in the country.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the banking sector, cashiers who pay customers cash across the counters now wear hand gloves to avoid infection, just as bush meat sellers lament low patronage across the country.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our checks reveal that bars and ‘joints’ including markets and other public places have employed precautionary measures so as not to contract the virus. Apart from avoiding bush meat delicacy and avoiding crowded places, many have resorted to wearing hand gloves and bidding farewell to handshakes.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At the Ikeja Tecno office, visitors and customers are subjected to various processes of checks and sanitisation before admittance into the office. At some bus terminals instant temperature checks are carried out on passengers. Any with high body temperature is asked to drop.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There is also high demand for hand gloves and sanitizers, thereby making them essential commodities.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Commercial banks</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A banker in one of the commercial banks at Agbara, a border town between Lagos and Ogun State told <span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Saturday Vanguard</span> that the wearing of gloves was a precautionary measure because cash deposited or withdrawn could have been contaminated.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Attendance to church services has dropped. People are avoiding crowds.  Many families did not go to church last Sunday for fear of Ebola virus.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A supermarket manager, Miss. Ada said supply of hand gloves and sanitizers have been badly hit. It is now almost out of stock because people have resorted to using them for preventive measures.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Effect on religious activities</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Earlier this month, the Catholic Archbishop of Metropolitan Lagos, His Grace, Most Rev (Dr) Alfred Adewale Martins had issued a health alert to priests, religious and the faithful,  informing them of the need to maintain proper hygiene. People were warned to avoid eating bush meat especially monkeys, grass cutters, bats, chimpanzees and so on.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Shortly before Holy Communion in a Roman Catholic Mass, the priest often invites the congregation to offer each other a sign of peace. However, what began as a simple handshake has become in many churches, an exuberant exchange of kisses and hugs and now the Vatican wants to stamp out the boisterous practices as it detracts from the solemnity of the service. In Lagos, giving sign of peace through hand-shaking is now avoided.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Evidently, if attendance at the church service, whether orthodox or pentecostal, drops, it could adversely affect the collections, tithes and other revenues. No thanks to Ebola.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Travelers and bush meat delicacy</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Saturday Vanguard visited the inter-state motor parks at Mile 2, Lagos to talk with travelers going to the East and South-South. Those traveling along the Lagos-Benin axis said that they no longer stop at the popular Ore and Ofosu points to patronize bush meat sellers as a precautionary measure against the Ebola disease.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A passenger said: “We told our driver last week not to stop at Ore to buy food because no person, since the outbreak of Ebola virus, would want to think of eating bush meat or even any type of food on the road. One can not be so sure of the kind of meat used to prepare the food. Again, one is not sure of the people that prepared the food if they had Ebola without even knowing,” adding, “abstinence is the best thing for now.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The loss of revenue for these bush meat sellers and food vendors at major stops along the inter-state highways can better be imagined as it could amount to several thousands of naira on a daily basis.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The same situation can be attributed to restaurants, pepper soup joints that serve bush meat as delicacy across towns. There is a  popular beer spot that is known for bush meat pepper soup in Surulere. Fear of Ebola has killed the bush meat business there.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Decline in bush meat business</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One of the sellers, Madam Ngozi, a household name in bush meat ‘joint’ in Ikeduru, Imo State said patronage has dropped since the outbreak of the virus. “Bush meat is being treated like a taboo since the Ebola alert. Although people are still coming to eat meat here, but not as much as before. Most customers are avoiding it now.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Another bush meat seller, Madam Do Good, also complained bitterly about poor patronage.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She said: “People are no longer buying bush meat. We have reduced the quantity of bush meat we used to buy from our suppliers because patronage has dropped. Even people who used to eat bush meat before now have stopped eating it. They would rather eat goat meat or beef, but not bush meat.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The bulk of my daily income comes from bush meat, but now sales have reduced from N20,000 to N5,000. Only a few people who are yet to believe in the spread of the virus still patronesses us”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Also, in Oleh, Delta State, the consumption of various kinds of bush meat such as antelopes, grass-cutter, squirrels and others, has dropped.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At one joint, popular for bush meat pepper soup and palm-wine, the seller said she had to stop losing money by removing bush-meat from her list of delicacies.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She laments: “Most of our customers have stopped coming. My family resorted to eating what I should have sold because  customers are avoiding it, thereby making me incur huge losses. Now I’ve stopped selling bush meat entirely, till this whole thing ends. I sell goat meat and beef. The Ebola virus has affected my business so much.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the remote area of Abule Egba, popularly known as Ejo (snake) village bars and beer parlour business are still active with people found in groups having their drinks with some plates of bush meat pepper soup.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At a spot located on Alafia street, Meiran road, Abule Egba, it was a beehive of activities with good patronage. The reporters were welcomed by the manager of the bar who said their menu had  varieties of bush meat pepper soup and drinks.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Adegoke, who has been involved in the business of buying bush meat from hunters and processing same as pepper soup for about 20 years also stated that some people still do not believe the virus can be contracted from handling and eating bush meat.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An okada man in the area who confessed he had an insatiable taste for bush meat argued that eating bush meat had nothing to do with Ebola virus. “You people should first of all find out if the late Patrick Sawyer ate bush meat. For me, nothing will discourage me from eating any kind of bush meat. In the past, it was HIV/AIDS and today, it is Ebola,” he stated.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Also, Mama Onigba in her 60s has been in the business of selling bush meat for the greater part of her life. She said that her customers still patronize her despite the linking of Ebola virus to the consumption of bush meat.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Said she: “My customers will continue to eat bush meat. There are people who cannot do without bush meat on daily basis and that has been my means of livelihood. “I’ve been in the business of selling bush meat before I got married at the age of 22. I go as far as Ondo state and even to Cotonou to get these animals. They are not easy to get. It really costs me a lot to preserve the meat because it easily attracts flies”.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She, however, complained that the Ebola virus has reduced her sales which is making life a bit difficult for her.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the same vein Iya Titi, a bush meat seller in Ikotun, thought it was a story that would soon fizzle out  without any pain. She maintained that until she began to record a downward slide in her daily sales, she never knew it would have a great effect on her business.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I am really finding things very difficult with my business now because of this Ebola virus. People are scared to come to my shop now because of the fear of Ebola. I hardly make up to N5,000 as against my normal daily sales of N20,000. I don’t know what to do,” She decried.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Caution in market and other public places</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is either the level of awareness is low amongst market women or outright disregard for preventive measures as far as body contact is concerned.  Most markets in Lagos and environs are still active with less caution and preventive measures.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A visit to Abule Egba and other areas where second hand cloths are sold showed that body contacts were still common and that people moved freely.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mrs Okafor, who deals in second hand female shirts at the market urged customers to put the clothes on to test the sizes before payment.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In contrast, a woman who sells pepper at Oke odo food market, Mrs Olagunju maintained that many market women need to be oriented as many do not understand messages in the media.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Chinasa Ikebi who also helps her auntie at a popular saloon in Lagos lamented low patronage.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She said: “some people don’t want to come out to make their hair because they feel that if they come in contact with people they will catch the illness. The ones that come to make their hair want us to wash our combs, towels and all our other implements all over again before using them on them,” Chinasa said.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Local bars</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For Mike Okems (Not real name), who operates a beer popular joint, in Ikotun Lagos,</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“it is really affecting us here especially, in the area of meat selling. Here in this place, we mostly sell Nkwobi, and many other things but, since this Ebola virus,  sales have dropped. Even with reduced prices, things are getting bad. Ebola is bad.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Similarly, a club operator along Ibeju Lekki, Mr. Raymond said, the development has affected his business negatively as the bar records low patronage since the news of Ebola broke.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“For two weeks, the bar has recorded massive low patronage because people are afraid of contracting Ebola”.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sporting activities on the decline?</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even sports is not left out; on an international scale, Togo has called for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations game in Guinea to be moved because of fears about the Ebola virus. The match, the responsibility of the Confederation of African Football, is scheduled for 5 or 6 September and is in the first group round of qualifiers. More than 300 people have died from Ebola in Guinea, the origin of the outbreak which is also now fast spreading in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Besides, most sporting arenas have recorded low patronage as sports lovers have restricted their activities to individual games and at least games with limited players where contact with each other is minimal.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Recreational centres, amusement parks and places of fun often visited by young people are now deserted, even swimming pools and gyms often patronized by the elites and middle class  are no longer attracting customers. Sporting activities have significantly reduced especially football, basketball and other sports with high physical contact. Ebola is changing life in this part of the world. It is said to spread through contact with blood, sweat, saliva, urine or semen of an infected person or animal.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Holiday coaching affected</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Summer lessons are not left out. One parent who did not want his name in print told our reporters that he had withdrawn his children from the holiday sports programmes because of Ebola.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Private Hospital</span>s</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rita Edet lamented that going to the hospital is dangerous now because you don’t know who might be a carrier in the hospital.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Right now, we have to be careful of going to hospital. We don’t know the hospital Ebola patients use.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Health workers are the primary target and that is the reason why patients need to be vigilant not to    contract Ebola virus”.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For Dr.Olafisoye, medical director, Awoyaya hospital, every consultation with any patient must go with washing of hands regularly with soap under a running tap.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On the alleged fear of contracting the virus in the hospital, he said, “staying at home and not going to the hospital when someone is ill might be dangerous.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It is difficult to tell where or what a particular person has touched before coming to the hospital and that is why it is compulsory wear gloves and also to wash our hands thoroughly after attending to a patient. Nobody has a label showing that he or she has touched an Ebola patient.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The people at risk are those who have primary contact with a very sick  Ebola patient. In this hospital, we organised workshop to sensitise our staff. The doctors must wear protective apparatus. There are limited protective kits in the country and that is dangerous.  We have face mask, gloves and ward coat. The cleaners too must wear gloves. There is a point that is connected to everybody and this is the entrance of the hospital. The cleaners are instructed to always clean the entrance with bleach every hour.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Commercial transit buses</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A bus passenger, Mr. Johnson said, it is not safe to board buses in  Lagos because of the fear of contracting Ebola virus. And that is why, government should set up task force to monitor transportation system in order to regulate sitting arrangement of the passengers so as to check transporters who, for example, carry five people on a row meant for three or four people. Body contacts should be avoided.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some buses including BRT, TM allow people to stand in the bus. This is pathetic. Government needs to enforce discipline and decency. Government should also engage the services of police and LASMA to checkmate transporters.</span></div> <div class="OUTBRAIN" data-browser="safari" data-dynload="" data-ob-mark="true" data-os="ipad" data-src="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/e-b-o-l-businessmen-bankers-transporters-sportsmen-tell-stories/" id="outbrain_widget_0" obdone="true" style="border: 0px; clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="ob_brnBox_cont NA" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="ob_what" style="border: 0px; clear: both; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 10px 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span class="ob_amelia" style="-webkit-transition: background-color, border-top-color; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-image: url(http://widgets.outbrain.com/images/widgetIcons/ob_logo_16x16.png); background-position: 50% 0%; border: 0px; box-sizing: content-box; display: inline-block; height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px -2px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; transition: background-color, border-top-color; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;" title="Outbrain"><div style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/e-b-o-l-businessmen-bankers-transporters-sportsmen-tell-stories/#" style="-webkit-transition: background-color, border-top-color; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: background-color, border-top-color; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></a></div> </span></div> </div> </div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/e-b-o-l-businessmen-bankers-transporters-sportsmen-tell-stories/#sthash.vAjQ8t8v.dpu</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px;">f</span></div>

E B O L A : Businessmen, Bankers, Transporters, Sportsmen tell their stories

Monday, August 11, Victoria Island, Lagos. An elegant woman hurried into a gym, met her husband working out and dragged him out of the pla...

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Mass Hysteria: Worse than Ebola Virus Disease

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="story-featured-image" style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-right: 15px; width: 208px;"> <span style="font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY ABIMBOLA ADELAKUN</span><img alt="VIEWPOINT Thursday, August 07, 2014" class="attachment-bigstoryimage" height="330" src="http://www.punchng.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/VIEWPOINT-Thursday-August-07-2014.jpg" style="background-color: whitesmoke; border: none; float: left; margin-right: 10px; padding: 4px;" width="200" /></div> <div id="nrelate_flyout_placeholder" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> Mass hysteria has gripped many countries of the world over the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Like all episodes of recent epidemics – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Avian Flu (H5N1), this outbreak has seen governments and the World Health Organisation devoting resources to finding a cure.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> Meanwhile, African leaders luxuriate and gallivant round the world, seeking nothing of importance; yet, chewing the same old issues on the same weary gums. Was it Karma that led to the United States screening some of them for Ebola? Who knows! Before we deem the US overzealous, remember it is to this same US and its European allies that our leaders look up to for a cure for Ebola. Makes one wonder, why is Africa so blest?</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> Is their quest in seeking a cure for Ebola informed by the contagious nature of the virus or they are genuinely concerned about their citizens for once? Despite all their panic about Ebola, we know that something greater -and worse- than Ebola invaded our shores long ago. Consequently, we die in our millions every year.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> The World Health Organisation data indicates that 90 per cent of malaria deaths are in the poorest countries and mortality is greater in children under age five; the same alarming statistics apply to pneumonia/respiratory diseases and also, HIV/AIDS. Those figures are higher than what Ebola has killed since it was discovered in 1976. In Nigeria, polio is still a serious problem and maternal mortality kills more women than Ebola has ever done, so why the fuss in only one direction?</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> Let me state clearly that I acknowledge that Ebola is a terrible disease and is currently listed as one of the worst in the world. I am also aware that the rate of contraction is probably higher in poorer countries because poverty, filth and disease tend to walk together. In countries where people have no qualms about defecating in public spaces, spew phlegm, spittle and other body fluids without a care in the world, the rate of contagion might be higher.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> Yet, there is something annoying about the moral panic Ebola has generated especially in the international media. It is almost as if every African is an Ebola vector and a grave risk to the world. From the look of things, the fear we contract from the sensationalism in the media will kill us faster than Ebola.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> From the Emirates airline’s indefinite suspension of its operations in Guinea to South Korea’s withdrawing the letter of invitation to three Nigerian students who were supposed to participate in a conference in their country to the loud protest by certain US politicians and citizens against flying home their citizens who were infected with the virus while doing missionary work in Africa, fear grips everyone. Some of the panics we are witnessing have the subtext of racism. Long-held prejudices against “diseased Africans” subtly creep up in the commentaries being deployed in addressing the Ebola scourge.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> In all the cacophony, some important facts are being overlooked.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> One is that Ebola needs not be a death sentence. The present outbreak has a 60 per cent mortality rate. Some past outbreak have had up to 90 per cent. However, its high mortality rate should not obscure the important fact that with adequate medical care – proper nutrition and replacing body fluids- the body can be enabled to buy time to be able to fight the disease back. There is a higher chance of survival if the infection is diagnosed early.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> I think that is one aspect of Ebola that needs to be highlighted in all the public health messages that are being passed around. If the detection of the disease is consistently presented as more or less a death sentence, it will be counterproductive as infected people are likely to be discouraged from reporting to health care institutions. They will rather stay at home and die without the indignity of stigmatisation.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> Two is that Ebola presents another chance for Africa to improve on its health care facilities. It is no coincidence that the places where Ebola is ravaging -Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia- are also one of the most wretched countries of the world where healthcare is pathetic. Various health care professionals that have been interviewed have stated over and over that they could have done far much more if they had adequate resources to work with. In terms of health care, African leaders have simply not done enough and that is why in Nigeria, our leaders will rather die in better hospitals abroad than be seen in ours.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> It is also important we invest in research and development. Outbreaks like Ebola tend to reveal our underbelly – that as a continent, we merely string things along until the white man comes to solve our problems. That is why I find the observation of the president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, Prof. John Ashton – that Ebola cure has not been found because it affects “powerless minorities” though patronising, but also a reflection of reality.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> For most of Africa, we live in an environment where our wildlife has neither been sufficiently understood nor documented. There are other species out there carrying another zoonotic disease that could be worse than Ebola. We need not wait till it comes to us; we have the larger responsibility to educate ourselves ahead.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> Three is the conspiracy theory that an outbreak of disease like this stimulates. For years, diseases from HIV/AIDS to Ebola have been peddled as a western conspiracy to decimate African populations. This curdled logic has taken root so much that it is partly responsible for the persistence of polio in Nigeria.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> The resulting paranoia is an addendum to the Ashton attitude; the beneficiary mentality of some Africans who think that a disease should affect “Oyinbo” population just as it affects them so the former can find a cure.</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> Like malaria, we are the primary victims of the problem and the higher responsibility to research the cure lies with us more than it lies with the white man. That is why our leaders should take a break from stealing public funds and begin to consider how we, as a people, will not be swept into extinction by our own undoing</div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: justify;"> Now that the condition of the two US citizens who were infected are said to be improving based on some experimental drug that has been developed but previously untested on human beings, it should be obvious that what kills us in Africa is far much more than Ebola. It is good we make some noise about it and try our best to curtail the spread of the disease but that, by no means, should be the end.</div> </div> </div>

Mass Hysteria: Worse than Ebola Virus Disease

BY ABIMBOLA ADELAKUN Mass hysteria has gripped many countries of the world over the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Like all episodes of...

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