Nigeria risks Ebola virus outbreak with porous borders – Minister
Law school student found hanging in hotel room
Porous land borders and exposure of health workers in Nigeria are sources of worry to the authority of possible outbreak of the Ebola disease.
More than 83 people have died of the disease in less than two weeks of outbreak including two deaths reported lately in Liberia and one in Ghana-after the outbreak started in Guinea Gambia, and Sierra Leone.
However, Ghanaian authorities yesterday denied the existence of the dreaded disease in the country.
The Ghana Ministry of Health said the test result of the blood sample of a suspected victim proved negative. A 30-year-old student of the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, has allegedly committed suicide in his native Taraba State. Auwal Haruna was said to have hanged himself yesterday from the ceiling fan in his hotel room in Takum.
The Taraba Police Public Relations Officer, Joseph Kwaji, confirmed the incident to journalists in Jalingo yesterday, saying the matter is under investigation.
According to him, the body of the deceased was found dangling from a
The blood sample of a 12-year old girl was taken to the Nougouchi memorial institute, Kumasi for investigation, because she exhibited symptoms similar to the Ebola virus.
The Nigerian Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu addressing newsmen in Abuja yesterday said there was “cause for anxiety for many reasons.”
Nigeria is contiguous with other countries contiguous to the states already named, he said.
“Nigerians travel a lot and it is easy to monitor what happens through ports but it is a challenge when it comes to our land borders,” the minister noted.
This comes amidst anxiety over vector-borne diseases, which currently ceiling fan at a Guest Inn in Takum. He said the deceased, until his death, was a suspect in a case of murder involving his younger brother, Ahmed, who allegedly connived with their mother, Aisha, to murder their father, Haruna Mohammed. He said the deceased’s brother (Ahmed) 27, was being detained for abducting and hanging his father to death in the suburb of Gembu over his father’s alleged marriage of a second wife against the wishes of his wife.
There is an upsurge in suicide cases affects millions of Nigerians and became the theme for this year’s World Health Day.
He said health workers were usually in first line of dangers because “in our anxiety to help others we fail to heed universal precautions.”
Chukwu said the rumoured lone suspected case of Ebola last week, later confirmed to be Dengue fever, was “necessity for us to be very vigilant.
Nigeria isn’t new to haemorrhagic fevers as Yellow fever and Dengue and Lassa fever, but Ebola is considered the most virulent of them, killing nine out of 10 people it infects.
At least half the country’s population is prone to diseases borne in Taraba which Mr. Kwaji, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, attributed the increase in cases of suicide to drug abuse and frustration.
“Most of these young men commit suicide as a result of drug abuse and frustration in life. Suicide is not the solution to our problems. Killing oneself is not only contrary to the laws of the land, but also against our religions,’’ Mr. Kwaji said. Two incidents of suicide were recorded in Jalingo in February. by vectors they make daily contact with-including insects, snails and mammals, which harbour microorganisms that cause anything from malaria and fevers to blindness.
The World Health Organisation estimates Nigeria has more than 25% of Africa’s burden of vectorborne disease, said Dr. Ruiz Gama Vaz, WHO country representative for Nigeria.
“We can protect ourselves and our families by simple measures as keeping our environment clean and less conducive to vector breeding and survival,” he said.
The vectors “exist in our community as we can do a lot to stop them,” said Ifeoma Anagbogu, coordinator of Nigeria Guinea-worm Eradication Programme.
One involved a 400-Level student of the Taraba University, Friday Samson, 32, who poisoned himself to death over lack of funds to pay his school fees. The other incident involved a watchman, Saidu Babura, 45, who hanged himself on a tree at Hassan Primary School, Jalingo, after an alleged battle against drug abuse. In January, 21-year-old Mansur Tanko burnt himself to death in Jalingo because his father, Tanko Mijinyawa, allegedly refused to approve of his plan to marry. (NAN)