Thorian

By Chioma Obinna The outbreak of Coronavirus is wreaking havoc worldwide. No one knows where the next outbreak would happen. From the best scientist in the world to the least person, everybody is questioning where and how a virus as deadly as this appeared from. While some religious persons said it was sent from the pit of hell, researchers worldwide are battling to understand the virus. The situation is so bad that some countries like El Salvador are now banning visitors from affected countries. Salvadoran citizens, for instance, arriving from those countries face 30-day quarantine. According to The Worldometer Coronavirus live update counter, the total number of active COVID-19 cases as at 5.30 pm on Friday, February 28, 2020, was 84,077 in 52 countries with a total of 2,876 (7 percent) deaths. 7 percent of deaths Of this number 36,241 (82 percent) are in mild condition, while 8,087 are serious or critical. Last Friday alone, 327 new cases and 44 new deaths h...

By Olayinka Ajayi The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, shares his perspectives on coronavirus and Lassa Fever. He spoke before the index case of coronavirus was recorded in Nigeria last week. The situation with Lasa Fever, where are we? Where we are is that people now have a better understanding of it, we know the vector which is rodents. We know it is a virus that belongs to the viral emoragi fevers. What is coming up is that the mortality rate is dropping because we are having a better understanding of it. The fatality rate some couple of years ago was 30 percent , now it is 15 percent. And for some reasons, the centers are in Ondo, Edo and Ebonyi , It seems it is a recurring event. Do we have a policy in this regard? It is endemic. It means that it is there all-year-round especially during dry season when rats find no food in the bush, so they start finding there way into houses, dropping urine in unprotected foods. But there’s a lot of study going on, we have virologist...

By Chioma Obinna D r. Salu Olumuyiwa is of the Virology Unit of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. In this interview, Olumuyiwa gives insight into how people should prevent being infected with Coronavirus. He expresses optimism that Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, and other centres can detect and handle the disease. The medical virologist also reveals how the first Coronavirus case was confirmed at LUTH. Excerpts: How ready is LUTH? Infection Preventive Capacity, IPC, has been enhanced both in LUTH and Mainland Hospital with the provision of adequate protective equipment and gadgets. The capacities of healthcare workers have also been beefed up. All protective measures necessary for infection prevention and control have been put in place. There are enough Personal Protective Equipment, PPEs, both at the designated hospitals and laboratories. Nigerian experts are not worried as we are all ramping up activities to prepare and respond to possible cases of COVID-19...

…‘Stay more than three feet away from a person who is sick’     By Chioma Obinna Prof Tomori Oyewale is a renowned   virologist and former President of the Nigerian Academy of Science, NAS. In this interview, Oyewale says the suggestion that people should subject themselves to self-quarantine is a joke and certainly not implementable. To him, government is not the most important or key player in preventing entry and spread of Coronavirus in Nigeria but the individual Nigerian and how honest he or she is, in complying with government guidelines on the disease. Excerpts: For the records, what is Coronavirus? Coronavirus belongs to a large family of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging from common cold to more severe diseases such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A new Coronavirus named SAR-Cov-2, first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, is the causative agent of the disease n...

Dr. Osahon Enabulele is the President of Commonwealth Medical Association, CMA. Enabulele speaks to Sunday Vanguard on how well Nigeria can prevent the spread of COVID-19. By Chioma Obinna How do you assess the preparedness of countries under your coverage? Since the emergence of Coronavirus in China, over 80,000 cases and 2,800 deaths have so far been recorded globally. About eight Commonwealth countries are affected. They are Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Canada, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. READ ALSO: Covid 19: Osun inaugurates 15-man committee to tackle menace Though the Commonwealth Medical Association considers the increasing spread of the virus quite worrisome, the association appreciates and commends the responses so far shown by affected Commonwealth countries. The association urges the rest of the Commonwealth countries not currently affected by Coronavirus to step up their level of preparedness and to manage this global public health challenge in a ...

… Lagos tracing contacts …States allay fears, introduce surveillance measures …Index patient transferred to new facility …Scarcity of face masks, sanitisers in Lagos, Abuja …Catholic Church suspends handshake during mass …Vaccine may be ready in June By Our Reporters Following last Friday’s quarantining of 28 people who had contacts with the index case of Coronavirus in Nigeria, 11 more people were identified and isolated yesterday in Ogun State. Those quarantined include people, who had contact with the Coronavirus patient when he visited Lafarge Africa facility, Ewekoro, include the driver who picked him from a hotel in Ikeja and those who served him food and drink. This came as Lagos State government relocated the Italian, who imported the disease into the country to a renovated facility at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba. Reports that the 44-year-old had attempted to abscond over the state of the facility where he was isolated, were debunked by the state government.   R...

By Chioma Obinna The World Health Organization, WHO, last Tuesday, announced that countries should begin to prepare for pandemic following the rapid spread of coronavirus in the world. The announcement came just as COVID-19 landed in Africa, specifically in Egypt, Algeria and Nigeria, with one case each. In this interview, Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, explains Nigeria’s level of preparedness to contain the virus. Excerpts: How prepared is Nigeria for any coronavirus case? The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by a new pathogen that had not been detected anywhere in the world, prior to January 2020 in Wuhan, China. Over the last two months, countries across the world including Nigeria have had to strengthen their systems to prepare for this new outbreak. We are learning a lot daily and strengthening our preparedness. With our large population, a large outbreak in Nigeria would have global health security implications. Nig...