Reps, Lagos may review schools’ resumption date over virus

CONTROVERSY over the Federal Government’s postponement of resumption date for primary and secondary schools across the country till September 22 over the Ebola scourge continued Tuesday with the House of Representatives resolving to wade into the matter.

   It has asked its Committee on Education to take another look at the issue of resumption date for private and public primary and secondary schools. The Education Minister, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, had announced a new resumption date for the 2014/2015 academic session so as to give the country’s health authorities enough time to contain the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) spread.

   However, private school owners have vehemently opposed the one-month shift, a development that compelled the ministry to bring resumption forward to September 22, 2014, after an interface with stakeholders in the sector.

   Responding to inquiries from newsmen Tuesday in Abuja, the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Victor Afam Ogene, said the House leadership resolved to mandate its Committee on Education to take another look at the issue “in the overall interest of the pupils and students, parents and guardians and the general wellbeing of the entire country.”

   According to him, given that some persons are still under surveillance and the likelihood of having other cases, there is the need to consider the safety of children and the entire country in arriving at when best to re-open both private and public schools.

   On Monday, the Africa Health, Human and Social Development Information Service (Afri-Dev. Info) had warned that the reopening of schools, involving no fewer than 80 million children, adolescents, students and teachers, was a high-risk venture with grave risk to all concerned.

   This comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) says the Ebola scourge in West Africa has affected over 4,200 patients and claimed nearly 2,300 lives.

   In a statement yesterday, the agency stressed that nearly half of the deaths had happened in less than a month even as it predicted more cases and fatalities in Liberia. 

   The United Nations (UN) apex health body said that as at September 6, 2014, 2,288 people out of 4,269 cases had died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. It said that 47 percent of the deaths and 49 percent of the cases had come in the prior 21 days.

   The countries bearing the brunt of the epidemic are among the world’s poorest, with dilapidated medical infrastructure buckling under the strain. Liberia has been by far the hardest hit by the epidemic, which since it began in neighbouring Guinea at the beginning of the year, has ballooned into the deadliest outbreak the world has ever seen.

   It alone accounts for half of all cases and counts for full 1,224 deaths - 62 percent of them since mid-August. WHO warned that Liberia would likely face “many thousands” of new infections in the next three weeks.

   According to WHO, Guinea, meanwhile, accounts for 555 deaths, while the deadly virus has claimed 509 lives in Sierra Leone and another seven people have died in Nigeria out of 19 cases, while one case has been confirmed in Senegal.

   The Democratic Republic of Congo is also facing its own outbreak of a separate strain of Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man.

   Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government yesterday confirmed as untrue the rumoured fresh case of EVD in the state, stating that as at 4 p.m. yesterday, there was no new case in the state, while only one remains in the isolation centre and was undergoing treatment.

   The Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, gave the update yesterday, stating that the only case under treatment was the one recovered from Port Harcourt, while nine infected patients had so far recovered, cleared and are now reunited with their families.

   Notwithstanding, contact tracing is still ongoing in the state and of the 366 secondary contacts, 347 (95 percent) have been cleared and discharged, Idris said. The remaining five percent (19) secondary cases were yet to complete their 21-day surveillance routine.

   He further said the First Consultant Hospital, Obalende, where the index case, late Patrick Sawyer, was treated, has been successfully decontaminated in line with the World Health Organisation’s International Health Regulation and has been issued a certificate by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control to re-open for business.

   Idris added that of most serious concern to the government were the growing cases of stigmatisation of secondary contact cases that had been cleared, noting that people were now being ejected from their accommodation and disengaged from work because of fear of Ebola transmission.

   Such stigmatisation, he said, might be due to ignorance and fear, but could further make contacts and suspects go underground and contribute to reverting the gains earlier made in containment and management of the virus.

   The state government is reconsidering the new resumption date and might issue a new one for schools in the state. Idris said the government was considering facts surrounding the matter and would announce its resumption date in due course.

   This move will lend credence to the position of renowned virologist and President of the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS), Prof. Oyewale Tomori, who said the delayed resumption lacks scientific basis. 

   Tomori said that while it might be true that children are most vulnerable to infectious diseases, it is most unlikely that a person sick of Ebola would be at a gathering or go to school.

   He said the postponement smacked of contradictions, noting: “You close schools but you allow political rallies, you close schools but you allow churches to go on, you close schools but you allow gatherings to hold. In any case, anybody with Ebola will not be at such a gathering.” 

   And while the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) would prefer government’s earlier announced October 13 resumption date to enable the country clear the virus from circulation before schools resume, parents and private school owners have welcomed the new date.

   Chairman of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Chief Yomi Otubela, said that member-schools were ready to resume on September 22, as all members have been educated on the disease through the Ebola Virus Risk Assessment Management Plan.

   Odubela, who hinted that government has so far been able to contain the virus, wondered why doctors would be stirring fears in the society over school resumption. Also, the Public Relations Officer of the Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED), Mr. Abiodun Owolana, said they are answerable to government and are putting measures in place ahead of the new resumption date.

   As well, the Proprietress of Mighty Oaks School, Olude, Ipaja, Mrs. Oyetunde Adejumo, applauded the government over the new date, stating: “We only have to be careful while schools should go ahead and resume. Already, I have instructed that every child’s temperature must be checked at the gate in order to ascertain if it is high or low before being admitted into the premises.”

   Similarly, a trader, Mrs. Patricia Osondu, and a businesswoman, Mrs. Eniola Badmus, supported government’s decision on the new resumption date, adding that keeping students at home would not solve any problem than delay school activities for the term. 

   Meanwhile, the authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, has debunked the rumour of outbreak of Ebola on the university campus. The OAU Public Relations Officer, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, said yesterday that the rumoured outbreak of the disease on campus was false. 

   It was rumoured that a student who recently returned from Port Harcourt was early yesterday rushed to the health centre, from where he was referred to OAUTH after showing some strange signs. However, the university has urged the public to disregard the rumour as no case of EVD was reported to the management of the university.

Source:Guardian Newspaper