Have you ever lived in a village where bats are in abundance? Perhaps
you would cast your mind to around 37 Military Hospital?that is if you
have ever been to Accra –where bats go for treatment. Or what do they do
in and around the hospital? Don’t assume those bats have been
quarantined by fate.
I have also lived in a village where God or my landlord (I don’t know
which of them) built a zoo of bats over my ceiling. These bats run amok
everywhere in the village and it seemed to me they are the primary
owners of the village, Kaira. Sometimes in the classrooms while teaching
and learning is going on, these colony of bats intrude classrooms, with
their sounds serving as ice breakers or musical interlude, if you will.
Fruit-eating bats are in many places across the country and the mere
sight of them speaks volumes about Ghana’s preparation against the Ebola
epidemic, if indeed, the virus is spread by these animals elsewhere.
Many Africans, including some humanitarian experts, criticised the
international community’s slow response to the fight against the ever-
ravaging virus. But truth be told, little has been done by ourselves,
notwithstanding the contribution made by the African Union. Ghana, for
instance, has done very little and should the virus show up, it would
destroy us as “the Lord struck all the firstborns in the land of Egypt
at midnight.” And one wonders whether the power crises would not double
the infection of the disease, should the virus sneak into Accra ,seeing
how ineffective our hospitals become when lights go out.
Our Ebola treatment centres were not completed early enough and sadly,
not many. Our neighbours to the west, Ivory Coast, were reported to have
gone beyond setting up Ebola treatment centres and employed mass
spraying exercise to ward off these bats from their borders, many of
which strayed into the western region of Ghana. If a disease could
infect over 2300 and kill over 9000 within a few months , why wouldn’t a
government do everything conceivable to keep it a distant story, but
would watch these fruit-eating bats cohabit with humans, some of which
are patients with weak immune systems (in the case of 37 Military
hospital)?
Meanwhile, there is another side of the Ebola story; some people believe
the Ebola virus was cooked in a Western “pot” as a biological weapon.
It was alleged that the virus was created by the U.S military in
collaboration with some International pharmaceutical companies. The
leader of The Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, Professor Cyril
Broderick, a professor at the Delaware University, Chris Brown the “With
You” singer, Archbishop Palmer Buckle were among prominent leaders who
voiced this allegation. And looking at the Machiavellianism in Western
and Eastern Blocs of world politics and also in many business people,
any clearheaded person cannot rubbish the above claim. The Tuskegee
Syphilis Study and the Anthrax attacks have not been erased from the
archives of world history.
The aforementioned men of courage aired their views on “population
control” in the hope that the media would talk about the issue.
However, that was not to be. Both international and local media,
together with Civil Society Organisations(CSOs) prefer weightier
matters; like talking about the sins of Putin but ignoring the thousands
of innocent Black Africans who are dying (probably) by the wickedness
or negligence of some scientists. Or, discussing the sins of African
governments while seeing nothing wrong with the evil meted out on
Africans by these western governments and their cohorts. To them, every
policy and product from the West is the best, so they( the media and
CSOs) failed to discuss the issue extensively.
AFRICA’S STRIDES
I cringe when I see Africa portrayed as a place estranged by Ebola. But
the world has not left Africa too far behind in terms of health care
services. At least this was evident in how some of the Ebola affected
countries handled their cases. Nigeria proved it is really the Big
Brother when it announced that it had rid the virus off its borders. By
mid-January 2015, Mali has also come out that the country was now free
of the virus. Senegal also gave a commendable response when imported
cases were reported in that country. And just last week, Liberia, which
was torn apart by the disease came out that it has released its last
patient, down from a height of 500 cases per week in September. Also,
encouraging is news from Sierra Leone and Guinea where cases of
infection are receding.
Even though cases of infection are receding, the harm inflicted on
people in the affected countries remains, and the compounded grief it
leaves should not be overlooked. When the disease is totally wiped out
of the sub-region, the media, especially, the international ones should
educate the world extensively that West Africa is free of Ebola. Social
media, campaigns such as “I am an African, not Ebola” should be
intensified and other “hashtags” developed to that effect.
In conclusion, one year of panic and destruction caused by Ebola cannot
be swept under the carpet seeing the traumatic prints it leaves in the
files of Africa’s history. As a result, all efforts to trace all persons
who came in contact with infected persons must be conclusive in order
to nip any possible resurgence in the bud. I also urge African
governments, to build robust health care systems to deal with future
medical emergencies and epidemics.
Hyderabad: A
preliminary vaccine for Ebola has been created by Ella Foundation of
Bharat Biotech. The vaccine made from adenovirus and glycoprotein was
tested on mice and the results were good.
