Africa Up Close

世界卫生组织20日宣布，非洲国家尼日利亚的埃博拉疫情结束。在美欧埃博拉防线相继失守、全球谈埃色变之际，这一喜讯振奋人心。人们不禁发问，对于人口稠密、资金短缺、每2879人“共享”一名医生的尼日利亚来说，这个非洲人口第一大国如何打赢这场埃博拉阻击战?

On October 20^th, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Nigeria Ebola-free. In the midst of the worsening Ebola situation in the United States and Europe, that is certainly an exhilarating piece of news. This however begs the question: In a densely populated, cash-strapped country where every 2879 people “share” a doctor, how did Nigeria manage to overcome Ebola?

This article is originally translated from Mandarin, click here to read the original from Guangzhou Daily .

One surely has to mention Doctor Ameyo Adadevoh’s efforts when recounting Nigeria’s success story. Her timely diagnosis of the virus and her decision to quarantine Liberian official Patrick Sawyer were key in preventing a large-scale Ebola outbreak in Nigeria.

Sawyer had arrived in Nigeria’s largest city Lagos to attend an ECOWAS conference on July 20^th, and died in a private hospital on July 25^th.

While in hospital, Sawyer repeatedly requested to be discharged. He even unplugged the IV apparatus at one point in an attempt to leave the hospital by force. Liberian officials also called in to warn the hospital that any attempt to retain Sawyer would be viewed as kidnapping. Nevertheless, the health workers dutifully persisted in ensuring that Sawyer was quarantined, and in retrospect, it was such persistence that was critical in controlling the Ebola outbreak situation.

When the hospital reported Sawyer’s condition to Nigerian federal and county health authorities, the Nigerian government immediately activated an emergency response by setting up quarantine wards.

John Vertefeuille from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressed that “Nigeria acted early, swiftly, and strongly… they were quick with their actions, especially in tracking down potential Ebola victims”.

Nigeria was flexible in finding a solution to the Ebola outbreak, activating disease control protocols previously used for polio outbreaks to track down the people that Sawyer was in physical contact with, thereby breaking the virus transmission chain.

According to CDC, besides zeroing on potential Ebola carriers, Nigerian officials and volunteers also visited 26,000 households in Lagos and its environs, educating people about Ebola prevention.

Analysts believe that the fact that cooperation in combating the virus was bipartisan and transcended beyond bureaucratic power struggle was also important to winning the battle.  Nigerian political analyst Emekanka Onyebuchi said that “the approach to Ebola was pragmatic, patriotic and non-partisan… they put the nation first, and this is what we should have done in other areas”.

“Nigeria was not really prepared for the outbreak, but the swift response from the federal government, state governments (and) international organizations…was essential,” commented Samuel Matoka, Ebola operations manager in Nigeria for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Canadian researchers expressed on October 21^st that instituting exit health screenings in the three Ebola-stricken West African countries is an ostensibly more efficient option than the current system of entry screenings. A related report has been published on English medical journal The Lancet. The report claims that in regard to air travel, exit health screenings only involve the airports of Conakry (Guinea), Monrovia (Liberia) and Freetown (Sierra Leone), whereas entry screenings would involve many airports around the world, which would require far greater resources to implement.

The report analyzed travel patterns and flight schedules in 2014 to derive at a prediction of the possibility that the Ebola virus would “latch onto” an unsuspecting passenger. Controlling the Ebola virus outbreak at the source in West Africa is the most effective way to decrease the international risk of transmission, said Doctor Kamran Khan, a physician and researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “Entry screening may detract resources from other important public health activities in countries with limited public health infrastructure,” he said.

However, St. Michael’s Hospital’s Marisa Creatore notes the assumption that all symptomatic travelers would be identified through exit screenings is only idealistic. “Because Ebola virus has a long incubation period where people are not ill and do not display symptoms, most infected travelers will not be symptomatic and possibly not even know they are infected. If they are not showing symptoms, then they will not be detectable with thermal imaging or other interventions either at exit or entry.”

This article was translated by Guan Hui Lee, Staff Intern with the Asia Program at the Wilson Center. 

Photo courtesy of CDC Global via Flickr Commons