On the Ground in Nigeria: Ebola Response

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Nigeria volunteers

By Lisa Esapa, CDC-Nigeria

For the last few months, there has been a constant buzz about Ebola among my friends and colleagues in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. Everyone had a theory about if, when, or how Ebola would come to Nigeria. When we heard about a probable case in Lagos, my heart sank. Lagos is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with a population of 15 to 20 million people. Lagos is crowded and loud, with sprawling slum areas that occupy the spaces between the river banks, markets, and developed areas. The stakes for stopping this outbreak from spreading are incredibly high.

EOC
CDC Ebola Response team members working in EOC in Lagos, Nigeria.

For the past 17 months, I’ve been stationed in Abuja, Nigeria, with the Global Immunization Division, working on polio eradication and routine immunizations as part of CDC’s emergency response efforts. I was deployed from Abuja to Lagos just over a week ago to work on setting up Nigeria’s own Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for Ebola. I’m a public health advisor, which I have learned in my 6 years at CDC means I have to be a jack-of-all-trades. This is certainly true for this response. Nine CDC staff in Lagos are working with Nigeria and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on infection control, airport screening, contact tracing, epidemiology and surveillance, communications, and management. I fit into the last category, but really my job is to be sure that all the different pieces are coming together and working. Our days start around 7:30 am with discussions over breakfast at the hotel. We then move to the Ebola EOC, temporarily located in a psychiatric hospital.

The drive to the EOC is the first adventure of the day. Traffic in Lagos can be quite challenging; lanes are congested with cars, while street venders move between the lanes of traffic at intersections selling daily papers—Ebola is the headline in 80 point font in all of them.

Talking to people, you can tell they are nervous and scared. Part of the work of the EOC is to put out accurate messages on prevention and counter the misinformation about Ebola that circulates. For example, the current rumor is that drinking salt water can prevent Ebola. There is a lot of stigma around Ebola and anyone associated with the disease. Many of the people who had contact with Ebola patients have been shunned by their communities. We are working with UNICEF and the U.S. Consulate to determine ways to support this group of people.

Nigeria Volunteers
Volunteers assemble for a lesson on personal protective equipment in Lagos, Nigeria.

During the course of the day, some team members go to an isolation ward (which houses the current patients), the airport, the lab, or the U.S. Consulate. In a “typical” day, I may work on a number of varying tasks, such as finalizing guidance documents that can be shared with states or healthcare workers, meeting with teams leads and partners, drafting a budget for specific activities, and explaining Nigerian culture to the team members. Luckily, this is part of my toolkit—being able to work in a different culture and help ensure my team doesn’t run into problems. Even a job like coordinating the motor pool is no small task, since security is always a concern in Nigeria and we have to travel in armored vehicles around the city. Connectivity has also been a major challenge this week. Sometimes the simplest tasks, like sending an email, can be the hardest to achieve!

The days are long; the team arrives back at the hotel between 9pm – 10pm each night. As we eat dinner, we discuss the events of the day and plan for the next day. The pace is extremely hectic, but, we all understand the urgency of the situation. We are all tired and at times frustrated when things don’t happen as quickly as we might like. In this type of environment, patience can sometimes wear thin.

Yesterday, we got word from the hospital that another one of the patients with Ebola had died. This was the fourth death from Ebola in Nigeria. I might not have known the patient personally, but I’m still deeply saddened by the news. We’re all a part of the response and working as hard as we can to ensure that no one else will become infected. With the bad news, there was also good news from the hospital that other patients are recovering and may be ready for discharge in the coming days. Compared to other countries in the West Africa Ebola outbreak, case numbers in Nigeria are low and we’re all holding our breath hoping that we’ve done enough to prevent any further spread of the disease.

For more on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, visit www.cdc.gov/ebola.

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5 comments on “On the Ground in Nigeria: Ebola Response”

Comments listed below are posted by individuals not associated with CDC, unless otherwise stated. These comments do not represent the official views of CDC, and CDC does not guarantee that any information posted by individuals on this site is correct, and disclaims any liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any such information. Read more about our comment policy ».

    Dear Lisa,
    Thanks for the great work you are doing in Lagos to curtail Ebola spread. However, as much as security could be a challenge in different parts of the world depending on the circumstances, having “…to travel in armored vehicles around the city” appears overstated. The state Government has improved security and response so much to the point that ordinary citizen sleep day and night eyes closed. You could have been given a layer of security as a diplomatic cover or largesse. That’s a complement not uncommon. You may also want to try a fast speed internet provider among the lots of thousands available in Lagos to improve connectivity.
    Once again, I profoundly appreciate your effort and your group as well as the government in tackling Ebola spread headlong in Nigeria. It is fast yielding positive results and a model for other West African countries.
    Kindest Regards,
    Sola

    Considering the recent Ebola incident in Texas had me thinking of all the precautions being taken once a person is identified as a carrier. I am a retired hospital worker and during my time, training for the elimination of the transmitting of infectious diseases was very important. It was known as Universal Precautions. This is care taken before a person is diagnosed as being infectious. By that time its to late. The patient has been through triage, had blood taken and talked with by an aide or nurse and or doctor. We used to be taught to wash hands between patients and glove up. I have noticed this is not done any more. I have asked nurses and tech,s while I was in the hospital or lab, to please wash their hands or glove up. They use the gel on the wall as the do all preventive care without washing their hands at any time. I believe more care should be taken before something happens to help prevent something bigger happening.

    The women that traveled to ohio from Dallas , after she took care of someone who died from Ebola . She is now fighting for her live also because she has Ebola. She also induced panic and if makes it, should lose her nurses license. She put millions at risk and induced panic. Should have legal consequences.

    ebola is a bad disease that can affect million of people in just few weeks so we should be carefull even here in nigeria we had some little fight about ebola some years back and i know how we lost so many people so we have to be careful
    techblog

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Page last reviewed: August 29, 2014
Page last updated: August 29, 2014