The Ebola outbreak in 2014 took Nigerians by surprise. Not only did it result in panic, but it also impacted vastly on our attitude to cleanliness and human contact – at least in the time of the epidemic.
Being a highly communicable disease, mere contact with an Ebola victim’s personal belongings could very well mean a death warrant. So people began to wash their hands that it soon became a habit or they avoided contact generally. Hand sanitizers became a commonality as people carried them around in their handbags, backpacks and purses.
Some even ignorantly began to bathe with salt solutions in fear of avoiding physical contact with possible victims on the loose. A few patients under watch managed to escape; seeking help with their pastors. There was a time an overzealous and emotional Liberian citizen threw herself at the corpse of a family member with the Ebola victim and this began another cycle of infection.
Ebola was a mess to handle, but a lot of Nigerians did something unique with the education which public sensitisation provided, and it helped the government curtail it quickly enough. Boarding public buses became a chore. People thought public conveniences even at big establishments were risky too. Because you do not know who is who or what they’ve been exposed to, so you avoided public spaces and gatherings altogether.
This paranoia would also mean that one was careful in selecting which dishes or cups to share with family and friends who live in same apartments. It may even imply people avoiding to sleep on the same bed because they do not really know if their partner had been exposed to a carrier of the disease during the course of their job. Parents gave stiff instructions to their wards as they went off to school. Handshakes suddenly became a scarce means of exchanging pleasantries and greetings.
For communicable diseases as potent as Ebola, it would mean that the fear of death alone could scare people into positive habits such as hand washing. It would mean it also enhances the culture of consent. At a time when a lot of women who frequent the Yaba market, for instance, complain of being unduly groped, the ensuing paranoia would mean that harassers kept their dirty hands to themselves.
But after the dust had settled, did we not all go back to our unkempt ways of public living? Practically utilizing little hand-washing and no sanitizers.
Therefore, with the knowledge that a few neighbouring countries are still high risk sources of Ebola which could be imported into Nigeria, the hand washing trend and campaign should have been kept alive as it is a positive trait to possess whether we are in a time of Ebola or not. If, for instance, common cold known to be largely spread through hand contact of an infected patient who has not washed his/her hands, there is a great chance of reducing instances of contracting cold. It is a fact that the hand is one of the most potent means of spreading diseases and microorganisms, so it deserves special attention.
As a nation, we should not be so relaxed about basic preventable health practices. The swing which comes with any terminal disease epidemic can only make us more paranoid as a people or even sometimes xenophobic.