Rumors of Ebola in Nigeria: the blind leading the blind?

From Nigeria Health Watch Tue Apr 8 2014, 08:30:00

The Ebola outbreak in parts of West Africa is currently (i.e. in March and April of 2014) in the news. The information one gets in Nigeria is however worryingly little and vague, sometimes simply false.

As early as 22 March, the Voice of America gave details of an Ebola outbreak in Guinea. A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) outlines the cases and casualties of the outbreak up to 1 April. The report refers to the Ministry of Health of Guinea,; stating that the country has seen 127 cases of which 35 have been laboratory confirmed and 83 deaths. The disease also showed up in neighbouring Liberia. Its Ministry of Health and Social Welfare gave the number of 8 cases and 5 deaths. Another 2 deaths were reported in Liberia.

The Nigerian Punch is one of the newspapers covering the current Ebola outbreak. In an article from the 26 March, the Punch informed us about the Federal Government's announcement to take "proactive measures to ensure that the outbreak of Ebola disease in neighbouring (sic) West African country, Guinea, does not come to Nigeria". Not only was this not followed up by concrete plans (all the article mentioned are planned discussions about the situation and a vague reference to the monitoring of travellers from the affected area), it also ignored the fact that there are ...

[view whole blog post ]
 See More    |     Report Abuse


You might also be interested in the following news stories:

West Africa:  Three More West African Countries Inaugurate Malaria Vaccination (news)
Premium Times
26 April 2024

The three West African countries are the latest to participate after successful rollouts of routine malaria immunisation for children in other countries. Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone, on Thursday, ... [read more]

Liberia:  Major Step in Malaria Prevention As Three West African Countries Roll Out Vaccine (press release)
GAVI Alliance
25 April 2024

In a significant step forward for malaria prevention in Africa, three countries - Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone - today launched a large-scale rollout of the life-saving malaria vaccine targeting ... [read more]

Afrique:  Deux nouveaux vaccins contre le paludisme en cours de déploiement (analysis)
The Conversation Africa
25 April 2024

Les cas de paludisme sont en augmentation. On dénombre 249 millions de cas de cette maladie parasitaire en 2022, soit cinq millions de plus qu'en 2021. L'Afrique est la région la plus ... [read more]



blogAfrica is allAfrica.com's platform to help you keep an ear on the African blogosphere. We draw diverse voices from around the world who post regularly and insightfully about African issues. Bloggers, submit your blog's rss-feed!