Ebola: School owners, FG on collision course

9 years ago

Ebola: School owners, FG on collision course

Private school owners in Lagos State and the Federal
Government may clash over the latter’s order directing
all primary and secondary schools in the country to
resume on October 13, 2014, instead of the anticipated
September 15.

The school owners, under the umbrella of the National
Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, believe
that the directive is unnecessary and should not be
considered as part of the measures to prevent the
spread of Ebola virus in the country.

They expressed their feeling at a sensitisation
programme on Ebola held on Thursday at Victory
Grammar School, Ikeja, Lagos.

The Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau,
had announced the resumption date after a meeting
with the 36 state commissioners of education on
Tuesday in Abuja
But speaking at the sensitisation programme, the Lagos
State President of the National Association of
Proprietors of Private Schools, Mr. Yomi Otubela, said,
“We have sent our appeal to the Federal Government
through the Lagos State Special Adviser on Public Health
informing it that if religious organisations and other
places are left open, these children could as well
contract the virus there.

“If markets that have more crowd than what we have in
schools are not asked to close down, then we wonder
why the government will not allow us put preventive
measures in place and allow these children return to
school. School is supposed to be a place of knowledge
and we are to educate and expose them to the
knowledge on what they need to know to prevent the
spread of the virus, not keeping them out of schools and
keeping them ignorant of what is happening.”

But the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Government
on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, disagreed with
the school owners, asking them to abide by the Federal
Government’s directive.

She also asked them not to place priority on their
financial wellbeing over the physical wellbeing of the
school children.

The founder of Supreme Educational Foundation
Schools, Mrs. Adenike Adamolekun, also said the
directive by the Federal Government was senseless.
She said, “Just as we are praising the Federal
Government for being proactive in containing the Ebola
virus, we are also condemning them on this one. It does
not make sense at all. Even if they had any doubt, what
they needed to have done was to have put together
some precautions and extend it to all schools, ensuring
that all schools abide by them.

“Shutting the schools for a whole month, considering
the fact they will be shut down next year again because
of elections, is a bad idea. Moreover, parents do not
know what to do with those kids. I think this is an
unnecessary approach to the issue.”

A school proprietress, Dr. Maggie Ibru, stated that what
the Federal Government could have done was to
provide hand sanitisers in all private and public schools
in the country.

She said it was in the capability of the Federal
Government to provide hand sanitisers and increase the
level of sanitisation in all schools in the country.
She said, “No, the Federal Government got it wrong on
this one because this will not stop the students from
participating in international examinations. What the
government should have done is to supply all schools
with hand sanitisers, both private and public, because
who attend the private schools too are Nigerians.
“They should allow the children to go back to school.

What to do is simple: the Federal Government could
have increased the sensitisation level on Ebola
prevention in our schools and if possible, give a directive
to all schools not to allow guests enter their premises, or
rather mandate every child and visitor be subjected to a
test before entering the school premises. These are the
measures that the Federal Government should have
taken.”

Meanwhile, inadequate test and treatment centres for
the Ebola Virus Disease has been identified as one of the
greatest challenges threatening the government’s efforts
to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

Though four test centres have been set up in the Lagos
University Teaching Hospital; Centre for Disease Control
in Asokoro, Abuja; University College Hospital, Ibadan;
and the Redeemers University Laboratory, Kilometer 35
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, doctors, who spoke with
Saturday PUNCH, flayed the government over what they
called inadequate test and treatment centres in the
country.

They said that adequate test and treatment centres are
very important to the management of Ebola outbreak
among other measures such as sufficient isolation
facilities and protective kits for medical personnel.

According to them, it is unheard of for a country of over
160 million people to rely on four test centres at a time
it is faced with a deadly disease that has, in the World
Health Organisation’s estimation, killed 1,552 people in
West Africa.

The Ebola Virus Disease was on July 24, 2014 imported
to Nigeria by a 40-year-old Liberian-American, Patrick
Sawyer.

Shortly after Sawyer died of the disease on his arrival in
Lagos, the Federal Government quickly rose to prevent
the spread of the virus by putting in place many
measures such as banning inter-state movement of
corpses. It also promised to establish nine more test
centres across the nation by September.

The Minster of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, had
also announced the plans to send mobile laboratories to
Enugu and Plateau states for the diagnosis of the virus
following fears that some people might have contracted
the disease in the two states.

President Goodluck Jonathan had equally announced
the release of N1.9bn Special Intervention Fund for the
management of Ebola.

The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity,
Dr. Reuban Abati, had explained that the N1.9bn Ebola
Fund would be used “to further strengthen on-going
steps to contain the virus such as the establishment of
additional isolation centres, case management, contact
tracing, deployment of additional personnel, screening
at borders, and the procurement of required items and
facilities.”

In spite of these measures, a virologist, Dr. Akinjogunla
Olajide, said the four testing centres for Ebola virus were
not enough for the country with a population of over
160 million people.
He said each of the 36 states of the federation should
have at least a test centre to handle emergency related
to the outbreak of a deadly virus such as Ebola.

Olajide said the need for each state to have its test
centre became necessary because of the difficulty that
would be involved in transporting the sample of a
suspected Ebola patient from a place like Cross River
State to Lagos State as a result of the distance between
the two states.

The virologist also said that the four test centres
currently available in the country lacked necessary
facilities.

Olajide said, “Containing the spread of Ebola virus
requires specially trained personnel. The four centres we
have in Nigeria today may boast of qualified personnel,
but the major challenge that may hinder their
effectiveness is inadequate facilities.”

He expressed the fear that there may be an outbreak of
the Ebola disease in Port Harcourt in the next few days
following the death in Port Harcourt of a doctor who
treated a diplomat who contracted Ebola from Sawyer,
the index case.

According to him, the victim must have interacted with
many people before he succumbed to the disease.
Chukwu, the Health Minister had on Wednesday
confirmed that the diplomat had contracted the virus,
and that the Ebola virus was responsible for killing the
late doctor.

He said, “A man who works for ECOWAS, a primary
contact of the index case, evaded surveillance and
travelled to Port Harcourt. He became ill and he went to
a hospital in Port Harcourt for treatment.

“Although he recovered, the doctor who treated him
died last week. The widow of the doctor alerted us and
we investigated the case. It is now confirmed that the
doctor died of Ebola. His widow has been put under
quarantine.

“The ECOWAS staff member is also under quarantine.
There is evidence that he had the virus but might have
recovered. We cannot rule out the option that he still
has the virus.”

The minister said 70 people were under surveillance in
Port Harcourt.
The latest development brings the total number of Ebola
cases in Nigeria to 15 from the 13 announced by the
health minister on Monday.

The President, Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Kayode
Obembe, also believes that the four centres are not
enough for the country with its huge population. He said
that the centres were poorly equipped.

According to him, each state of the federation should
have at least a test centre for effective prevention of the
spread of the Ebola virus.

Obembe, who claimed that the Federal Government has
the capacity to contain the spread of the Ebola virus,
however, urged it to embark on rigorous training and
re-training of health workers and volunteers involved in
managing the centres.

Another medical practitioner, Dr. Rotimi Adesanya, said
the treatment of the Ebola disease involves a lot of
financial resources, special training, kits and handling of
the facilities, which may be the reason the government
could not dabble into making the facility available at
every nook and cranny of the country. He said, “If the
government makes it available everywhere, it may
expose the populace to the disease, but the government
can at least have equipped treatment centres that have
the capacity of combating the disease. However, the
focus should be more on treatment centres, not testing
centres, and the truth is that we don’t have adequate
treatment centres across the country. “However, I think
every state should have about three treatment centres,
which could be one per senatorial zone and about one
or two testing centres in each state, because doing the
test everywhere may lead to spreading the virus due to
misplacement or any other thing.

- punch