The Minister said that, as of Wednesday, the total number of confirmed cases of EVD in Nigeria was 19 (15 in Lagos, four in Port Harcourt) and that the total number of deaths was seven (five in Lagos, two in Port Harcourt).
He added that the total number of patients who have been successfully treated and discharged is now 10, that the total number of EVD survivors so far is 12 and that there is no single current case of confirmed EVD in Nigeria.
There is one suspected case in Ile-Ife, a university student who had contact with the first Port Harcourt victim of EVD (a doctor) at a naming ceremony. And he has been quarantined and is being investigated.
Meanwhile, Lagos now has 16 people under surveillance, while 350 people who were previously under surveillance have been discharged, having been carefully observed in isolation units for 21 days.
Bravo to the Federal Government and to the Lagos and Rivers State Governments for handling this EVD issue so competently and averting a crisis.
Like most Nigerians, I frequently criticise our leaders because, frankly, they are disappointing most of the time and are always failing to fulfil their potential and failing to provide us with the level of care and progress we yearn for.
Medical expertise
But they really deserve praise and gratitude on this occasion. Let me also seize this opportunity to thank the Nigerian and foreign professionals (World Health Organisation staff, for example) who are delivering valuable advice, medical expertise, moral support and practical assistance.
By the way, I am often enraged by international news broadcasts about West Africa's EVD problem. Too many of the reports I have watched on foreign TV channels like Sky and Al Jazeera are dishing out the very false impression that Nigeria is on a par with Liberia and Sierra Leone within this context.
In fact, I have never heard any foreign TV correspondent clearly state that though EVD exists in Nigeria, our infection and mortality rate is comparatively miniscule because the Nigerian authorities have performed impressively.
There may be foreign TV correspondents who go out of their way to make a distinction, but I haven't come across any. The ones whose reports I've listened to just blithely lump us together with countries in which hundreds of poor souls have tragically died…and flatly refuse to give Nigeria any credit at all for facing up to this tough challenge in an intelligent, decisive and effective manner.
I saw a really sad report about Liberia a couple of days ago. Desperately ill people were lying on the ground outside a hospital gate. They were hoping to be admitted, but they couldn't be because there simply weren't enough beds.
I feel a bit ashamed of myself for jingoistically focussing on Nigeria's image and boasting about Nigeria's superior ability to contain
EVD…when all that really matters in real terms the fact that fellow human beings, especially our brothers and sisters in Sierra Leone and Liberia, are enduring unimaginable suffering.
But I cannot help but wonder why we must be portrayed in the same unflattering light as African nations that are not coping well with EVD.
The implication is that Africans are always overwhelmed by emergencies because they can never get their acts together and operate systematically.
Why can't the foreign journalists who are annoying me quit their lazy, disrespectful, subtly racist generalising…and trot out a few statistics that put things into perspective, so they can give their viewers an accurate picture?
When I complained to a British media colleague, she told me that "there may be reluctance to explicitly differentiate Nigeria from Liberia and Sierra Leone because there may be scepticism about the Nigerian Government's figures."
She also said that "It may be too early to conclude that EVD is under control in Nigeria because it is still possible that it will eventually become an epidemic."
But isn't it blindingly obvious that Nigeria is not in the throes of a major public health disaster at the moment? And shouldn't they be talking about what is happening now and what they can see with their own eyes…instead of sceptically holding back because they suspect that things will get worse?
Will Scotland ditch the UK?
NEXT Thursday, a historic referendum will take place in Britain when Scottish voters will get a chance to decide whether they should either continue to be part of the United Kingdom (which comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) or leave the Union and become an independent nation.
This issue has been the subject of heated debate for decades and it has become even more heated as D-Day approaches. Feelings are running very high.
Scottish Nationalists are passionately insisting that Scotland will benefit enormously – financially, culturally, politically and psychologically – if it goes its own way and if Scots become the sole captains of their own ship……while pro-Union activists, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, are passionately insisting that the Scottish, English, Welsh and Northern Irish are inextricably linked members of the same flawed but essentially loving family…and that Scotland will become a weak backwater if it detaches itself.
I am in London at the moment and taking a keen interest in developments; and I totally agree with the pro-Union campaigners. Their slogan is "Better Together" and I believe that the Scots et al will, indeed, be better off together.
Opinion polls show that there isn't much of a gap between pro- and anti- sentiments. Sometimes, we are told that the pro group is winning. Sometimes, we hear the opposite. Let us wait and see what happens.
Unfortunately perhaps, I cannot confidently adopt the same "Better Together" position when debates about my own country arise.
I have excellent relationships with many Nigerians who don't share my religious or ethnic background. But I am increasingly hostile to the idea of continuing to have the same passport as Islamic extremists who are behaving like animals.
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