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The World Health Organization is set to send representatives to Nigeria in the wake of the discovery of a human infection of the H5N1 virus in that country. The tone of this article is somewhat critical of Nigeria. Small wonder, since it's published in Qatar, an African nation watching nervously as Nigeria deals with this problem.
Nigeria is feared to be a prime breeding ground for the virus, and any hopes for containment there are slim. It it breaks out there, it could soon be everywhere.
WHO experts to visit Nigeria over bird flu death
Published: Monday, 5 February, 2007, 08:34 AM Doha Time
LAGOS: World Health Organisation (WHO) experts are due in Nigeria this week following confirmation of the first human victim of H5N1 bird flu virus in the country, a senior public health official said yesterday.
“We really have a serious problem on our hand. This is why we have to move fast to fight the disease,” director of public health of the federal health ministry, Abdullahi Nasidi, said.
WHO experts will meet with officials of Health, Agriculture and related ministries and departments with a view to evolving “an action plan now that the disease has claimed its first human victim in our country”, Nasidi added.
Laboratory test results in Britain confirmed on Saturday that a 22-year-old woman who died in Lagos on January 17 was a victim of the H5N1 virus. Two other suspect deaths are still under investigation.
WHO also said samples from all those who’d been in contact with the dead woman had tested negative and did not show any sign of transmission of bird flu among humans.
At present H5N1 remains overwhelmingly a disease of birds, and not humans. However, if the virus acquired the ability to pass from human to human, experts warn it will pose a potential threat to millions across the globe.
Health experts in Lagos warned that human cases in Nigeria could be difficult to contain given the poverty in which many Nigerians live and the rampant corruption that makes measures and bans difficult to enforce.
“We really have a serious problem on our hand. This is why we have to move fast to fight the disease,” said Nasidi.
He said there are “serious concerns” that the virus might spread quickly to Nigeria’s immediate neighbours if the issue is not addressed quickly.
Immediately after the announcement of the deadly case in Lagos, Benin, Cameroon and Niger have beefed up surveillance at their borders.
Lagos-based vet Yomi Agbato said Nigerians and their neighbours were at great risk of infection.
“Given our lackadaisical approach to issues, I am afraid we may be having a big problem on our hand,” he said.
