Nigeria Beats Ebola..Yipeeee

In times like this, it feels so good to be a Nigerian. Don't get me wrong, I am a patriotic Nigerian, but during the Ebola crisis, all hands were on deck to do the right thing, and it was done to perfection. From the Federal government to the man in the street. I think everyone was scared, the people in government were scared too. I mean, this is something that you can't even see, you don't know when it creeps in on you. For example, the government can decide to fly to boycott a bad road, can get health services or education abroad to avoid our ill equipped hospitals and schools here. Ebola was not like that, you can do the right things and still get it, somehow, somewhere.

From the first time Patrick Sawyer gave the disease a first class ticket to Nigeria, there was no rest, we just had to tell the story to the world. All the press briefings in Lagos and Abuja, the trips to the airports to cover passenger screenings, interviews at the Centre for Disease Control, the market and the scarcity of hand sanitizers, the eating of bitter kola and bathing with salt hype, meetings with the Ebola survivors, school resumption and all they put in place for effective control of the disease and finally, when Nigeria was declared Ebola free, the interview with Doctor Benjamin Ohiaeri of First Consultants Hospital, the place where it all started.

I am glad its all a thing of the past now in Nigeria. I still pray the entire world. Its not just an African disease.

Lets keep the green-white-green flag flying high.

Rest in peace Doctor Adadevoh, and all the ones who died fighting the Ebola scourge.

And many thanks to Samantha Bolton, WHO Communications Officer, for all the contacts.

Find videos below:

Nigeria Declared Ebola Free

Nigeria Schools Reopen After Ebola Break

Dr. Aileen Marty wearing a Hazmat suit

Interview with Doctor Aileen Marty, Professor of Infectious Diseases Florida International University College of Medicine

Interview with Dr. Alex Okoh, responsible for points of entry into Lagos

Buckets of water for hand washing in front of a school


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